An elderly landlord says she is living in fear and could be left with a massive clean-up bill after a tenant turned her rural property outside Melbourne into an illegal dumping ground.
The 70-year-old said she signed a lease with the tenant, a young Middle Eastern man, in late June for him to use her six-hectare hobby farm near Diggers Rest to store materials for his plumbing business, and the contract stated that he was to “maintain the land well”.
But the tenant, who was once acquitted of ISIS-related terror offences, almost immediately began using the property as a building waste dump, with multiple trucks arriving each day and leaving piles of bricks, metal and other debris stripped from old houses, the Herald Sun reported.
The landlord, who wishes to remain anonymous, issued an eviction notice on July 3, but it has been ignored, and the elderly woman said she is now experiencing “psychological terror”.
“I am entirely helpless, vomiting blood and I just don’t know what to do,” she said.
“I am deeply terrified for my own physical safety and the safety of my neighbours.”
She also fears the waste poses a fire risk and could contain asbestos or other hazardous materials, and said that a lack of legislation requiring tenants to clean up properties on eviction means she could be stuck with a bill of more than $1 million to remove the waste.
She said she and a neighbour had made formal reports to the Environmental Protection Authority and Hume City Council, but she believes the tenant is exploiting bureaucratic delays, and will dump as much waste as possible before he is finally evicted.
“They chose an innocent, private residential landlord to deliberately use my hobby farm as a massive illegal dumping ground,” she said.
Victoria Police searched the property on July 17 in response to the landlord’s concerns that the tenant was storing firearms there, but said none were found.
“It was determined that no criminal offences occurred, and the incident was a civil matter,” police said.
EPA Victoria said it had ordered the occupier of the property to “immediately cease accepting industrial waste and remove all waste deposited at the site by August 14”.
“EPA will not hesitate to take escalated enforcement action should the occupier fail to comply,” it said in a statement.
“The property was leased to the current tenant in late June, 2026. After receiving reports of illegal dumping on the site in early July, EPA confirmed the presence of illegally dumped industrial waste on 16 July.
“An Environmental Action Notice was issued to the tenant on 17 July. EPA continues to monitor the site to assess compliance.”
The council said it was aware of the “alleged misuse of land” and that the matter was “currently subject to assessment”.
Victoria is responsible for more than half of Australia’s illegal dumping reports, with Melbourne’s multicultural outer suburbs worst affected, according to data released earlier this year.
Header image: Left, piles of waste on the property. Right, trucks arriving at the site (supplied).
The post Middle Eastern tenant turns rural Victorian property into illegal dumping ground first appeared on The Noticer.
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