Landlord David Goodine calls renting a 'nightmare'
David Goodine of Plaster Rock says he has been left cleaning and scrubbing a filthy rental property after evicting two tenants in April.
Goodine alleges the tenants were two months late paying rent when he sent eviction letters. He entered the home in May after they had vacated the property.
"My son had to shovel countless baby diapers out of the bathtub," said Goodine. "We cleaned out 16 great big bags of garbage. There was food on the floor, milk cartoons, take-out food containers," he said.
Goodine says he had to enlist his son Andrew to help clean up. He says they have spent many hours trying to get the bad smell out. Andrew said it was the "grossest thing" he's ever had to do.
"Animal feces and human feces – it was just gross," said Andrew. "The toilet was half-clogged. And with all the feces in the bathtub – I don't know where they were showering, or if they were showering, but they weren't doing it here."
David Goodine says after removing the bulk of the garbage from the home it still took two cleaners 29 hours to make the place habitable.
"I don't know why but there was margarine smeared all over the inside of the fridge," said Belinda Argue, one of the cleaners.
"They only good thing that was going on in that fridge is that there wasn't anything alive in there," said Goodine.
Goodine is a trucker. He admits he hasn't been around much to check on the property due to the nature of his job. He says he's 72 and working to try and prepare for retirement.
He says despite suffering over $3,000 in costs for repairs, and the late rent he says he was never paid, so far, he's not looking for compensation.
"I didn't have a lease signed with them, it was just $500 dollars a month, for month to month," he said.
"I just want other people to be careful and not let what happened to me to happen to them."
The province's Office of the Rentalsman told CBC News Goodine's only recourse, were he to seek it, would be law enforcement, since he did not have a lease agreement in place. In a statement emailed to CBC News Monday, the office stated:
"When Landlords enter into agreements with tenants, we strongly encourage them to sign leases and accommodation inspection reports with tenants. This is in addition to the regular due diligence of checking references. This is a good practice for landlords as it is a protection mechanism, and helps to prevent incidents like this form occurring."
CBC News called the male and female tenants. Neither party responded or returned calls.
