QLD Property Investment Trashed by Tenants - Ramifications of Revenge?

Hello,

My property investment has just been abandoned and totally trashed by tenants - the piles of rubbish and filth are huge, along with every item they have ever hoarded and didn’t want to move. Plus they owe me a small fortune in rent arrears.

I do not have the physical or financial capability to move all of their stuff, but until it’s cleaned up, I can’t re-rent it.

I did get a small glimmer of hope when I saw this article about a landlord who had the same problem.

Landlord gets revenge on tenants by dumping their junk outside their new home

What ramifications would there be to dump all of their rubbish and leftover property at their new house?

I have found out they have moved 5 mins down the road and signed a new lease with someone else.

Yes, I will peruse the money for rent through QCAT channels, but only asking here about returning their goods to them via tip truck.

Cheers.

Well thanks for the the thoughts everyone. It is a tricky one.

To answer some of your comments and also update you on what’s happened....

A Neighbour a few doors down has a small/medium tip truck and bobcat, he has offered to assist. Thats a nice thing to do.

It is a rural property so it can be dumped straight over the front fence and would not be on public land so should not be a littering issue. He could back up and tip it onto their land no problem. This also means no need to trespass.

I live at the other end of the state so my safety is likely to be ok.

Scruff you are funny and clever too.

So more of an update now - I have the property legally back in my possession and have filed a complaint with police who are attending early next week to assess the actual wilful damage. I will be travelling up on a bus to the property to meet them and fully assess the damage. (Only saw some of the damage when Neighbour took photos after I got possession).

My neighbour called me on the weekend - the tenants actually returned to property on the weekend, cut the new lock on the gate, went in and helped themselves to some of their things then caused another round of new damage. I called police for trespass and they attended 5 hrs later (after tenants have cleared off). They spoke to tenants at home and told them not to go back again or trespass charges will be laid.

So until early next week I won’t know the full extent of what’s been done inside and out, but based on a few pics it’s not going to be very nice.

Yes Scruff I was very disappointed- the officer who called me explained that there was no way to prove the tenant knew he was trespassing. (Despite them having abandoned the place !) There was even an abandonment termination notice on the gate (tenant apparently claimed it wasn’t there when they asked him about it). Have photos showing it stuck on gate in plastic bag of course to prove my end. The police said having a photo of the notice on the gate is not going to stand up in court to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the tenant knew he shouldn’t be there (hope I said said that right?). Apparently having a lock on the gate that he cut off isn’t enough evidence either, the tenant can say it’s his lock and he forgot the key so he cut it off. No wonder the law is frustrating and sometimes does seem to favour the baddies. Same as tenancy laws, they give the tenants so many more rights.