A Tenant Moved out and Scattered Nails and Pins Everywhere

Lrymndtng on 03/06/2019 - 20:08
Last edited 04/06/2019 - 11:48 by 1 other user

Hi all,

A tenant moved out of my parents' investment property a few days ago and just now I've found 20+ pins AND nails of different types, scattered in large numbers across all rooms in the house and I haven't even finished checking every room yet.

What can we do? Can I pursue legal action? I need advice. Very lucky my parents wore shoes today. I only noticed because I've felt a prick under my foot this past hour and I took my sock off to check but found no bleeding. I think it wasn't deep enough luckily. It was when I turned on the flashlight on my phone and looked around the carpet that I discovered this tenant has set up these pins and nails as traps all over the house.

Home & Garden Rental Property

Comments

  • rymndtng on 03/06/2019 - 20:08
    +2

    I've taken photos of nails and pins in the carpet.

  • chumlee on 03/06/2019 - 20:13
    +9

    Charge for cleaning up and take it from the bond

  • mbck on 03/06/2019 - 20:29

    I believe it costs money to clean this. Need special cleaning person and things…so probably worth the whole deposit.

  • WreckTangle on 03/06/2019 - 20:43
    +11

    Police

    • 87percent on 04/06/2019 - 09:25

      Yeah I'd be calling the police

  • thatonethere on 03/06/2019 - 20:51
    +10

    Get a strong magnet and sweep it thru each room

    • [Deactivated] on 03/06/2019 - 21:54
      +1

      I use one of these to go over my fire pits. Sometimes easier to cut off nail ridden wood and burn it to extract the sharps.

  • try2bhelpful on 03/06/2019 - 20:58

    Was it a private rental or did you go through an Agent? If an Agent I would be contacting them.

    • rymndtng on 03/06/2019 - 21:30
      +1

      I'm going to the agent tomorrow. My dad has told me the agent claims this tenant has moved back to Lebanon so I don't know what can be done. The tenant did a runner with some unpaid rent and did all this passive aggressive stuff like leaving a car bumper behind and a tire thrown on top of a garden pergola before they left, as well as random damages that aren't your typical wear and tear including ripped wallpapers and burnt carpets.

      • try2bhelpful on 03/06/2019 - 22:49
        +3

        sounds like you are well rid of him. I would go to the police so there is something on file in case he tries to return to Australia. See what the agent can do about the bond. Who was involved in the final inspection?

  • [Deactivated] on 03/06/2019 - 21:06
    +10

    Don't touch any of it.

    Let the police/lawyers decide if that's sufficient evidence for intent to cause harm.

    Setting up a trap with the intention to cause harm is a high degree criminal offence. Do your part, take out the trash. (In this case, it isn't the sharps, it's the ex-tenant).

    • rymndtng on 03/06/2019 - 21:37
      +4

      I was thinking malicious intent with the sewing pins and nails - there is no way there would be so many sharp objects everywhere when they had a young child living there. The (profanity) even left behind a single photo of himself in the house for us to find - on purpose just to spite us? Who knows.

      I do regret picking up a whole bunch of them - My dad and I put most of them together into a container… We left a few remaining that we saw before we went back home because we didn't want to get rid of the evidence of what the tenant did. There's definitely still more because we haven't looked thoroughly everywhere.

  • kahn on 03/06/2019 - 22:28
    +2

    Bikies or Tracey Grimshaw.

  • Room Temperature on 04/06/2019 - 08:01

    Magnets on the end of the broom and get sweeping.

    Seriously though, what tshow said.

  • orangetrain on 04/06/2019 - 08:32

    I don't know your relationship with your tenant but these nails could also be infected. Wear gloves too.

    It sucks, did your agent advise whether these were suitable tenants prior to moving in?

  • Mikeyphoto48 on 04/06/2019 - 08:40

    Was he evicted or just left of his own accord? Sounds like a charming piece of work. Also consider changing the locks maybe..

  • Illian on 04/06/2019 - 14:56
    -1

    From what you've written they're just randomly scattered on the floor? How is that a trap? Just take a look in anyone's home workshop and you'll see the same. Dick move, sure, but I would have assumed you were talking about actually glued to the floor or inserted through carpet from underneath so they're sticking up vertically home alone style. As it is you definitely need to take it out of the bond, but you're also blowing it out of proportion.

    • try2bhelpful on 04/06/2019 - 17:02
      +2

      Who, accidentally, scatters nails and pins across multiple rooms in a house. It doesn’t seem to be isolated to the workshop. I don’t think the OP is blowing this out of proportion, this sounds like a deliberate act. It sounds a lot like the guy who put down tacks on the bicycle paths,

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