Renter beware: Wollongong student's warning over 'unlivable' sharehouse

Charlotte, a second-year mechanical engineering student at UOW, lost her mattress, furniture and scores of personal items to the water that inundated her tiled sub-ground level room at 54 Murphys Avenue.

She and her four housemates terminated their lease in late April after widespread flooding across the Illawarra, when a pool of water 36cm high settled across her bedroom floor. Charlotte said this was the fourth time the home's downstairs areas had flooded, and the third time water had come into her bedroom.

She recently took to a students' online community page to warn others after seeing the five-bedroom, one-bathroom home advertised for rent again at $990-a-week.

Landlord Garry Scott denies the property flooded so often. He told the Mercury he had since made improvements to the house to prevent flooding, which he blamed on water coming in an external door opening he had now raised by 200mm.

But Charlotte said she believes the property has a drainage problem that needs a qualified professional to solve.

"The water would seep through the floor where the tiles are," she said.

"The landlord would come over and do repairs, and I say that loosely, because it flooded again every time. I believe he put some concrete around the house to try and waterproof it.

"[On April 5] he said, 'don't worry girls, it will never flood again'. The next day it flooded with over a foot of water."

Charlotte said she was disappointed to see the property advertised as a five-bedroom home, particularly given the house only had one bathroom.

"Every time it rained heavily I had to roll up my rug. Sometimes it would flood, sometimes it wouldn't. I would consider the room unlivable because I don't think anyone should have to live like that," she said.

"I wouldn't want to put anyone else through what we went through. I felt a responsibility to warn other students."

Charlotte and a friend moved into the two downstairs rooms, both tiled, with some power outlets placed at waist height - after other friends claimed the upstairs rooms.

Material provided to the Mercury shows some downstairs areas flooded soon after they moved in, on November 5 and November 29.

Charlotte said water in her room rose only about an inch at its highest on November 5 last year, but the effects of the flooding lingered.

"I had a fan going constantly because after the first flooding it never felt completely dry," she said.

"My bed frame was made of wood, so that got mouldy. A lot of things got damp and they never really recovered. I'd find a jumper in my cupboard and it would be mouldy."

Charlotte's downstairs roommate, who declined to be named, said her room only flooded once, during Wollongong's extreme weather event on April 6, but that her belongings became mouldy months earlier because "it was so damp down there".

Charlotte said Mr Scott carried out repairs - concreting an exterior laundry wall, cleaning gutters, and propping up gutters - including on April 5, but her room again flooded with up to an inch of water on April 6.

Charlotte slept upstairs and woke to find water in her downstairs room more than a ruler length up the wall.

"I did spend a few hours bucketing water out of there, so I got the water level down. I still didn't sleep in there," she said.

"It was awful - some of the worst weeks I've had in my life. It was in the middle of mid-term exams at uni and all our belongings had gotten ruined. The damage for things we could put a price on was about $1300, but my roommate's father had passed away at the start of the year and she lost things he had given her. There was a lot of emotional damage."

They received a week's rent as compensation - $990 - despite sending the property manager a detailed and "conservative" summary of the $1300 worth of flood-destroyed items.

Speaking from the property on Thursday, Mr Scott showed the Mercury where he had used concrete to raise an external door opening to the home in recent weeks. The door opens to a tiled hallway that connects a laundry to the two downstairs bedrooms. He said the fix had withstood a heavy rain event in May.

He said water once came in the house because he pulled out a large fern that "must have had roots under the foundations".

"A bucket and a half of water, is that a flood?" he said.

"She [Charlotte] got flooded once - so did 70 per cent of the Illawarra. That was when we had the high tide, the big floods, but I've put a wall in there now so it shouldn't get in there."

The Mercury visited the downstairs rooms on Thursday and noted a damp smell. The day was sunny. There was no visible mould or moisture on the tiled floor or walls of the now-empty rooms.

Property manager Jackie Biceski, of Domaa Real Estate Hub, said her office had routinely inspected the home without noting any mould, and that the tenants had never reported mould concerns.

Ms Biceski said her records showed the tenants made their "first and only" report of flooding on April 6. Shown contents of a text message between a staffer and one of the tenants on November 29, she noted the downstairs areas, not bedrooms, had flooded.

Ms Biceski described the home as "well maintained with no mould and no signs dampness".

"The home has been inspected by qualified tradespeople after further works have been carried out to the home over an eight-week period. We have been informed the home is habitable. This flood occurrence was due to the Illawarra's torrential rain and our team has disclosed this occurrence to prospective tenants."

She said she accompanied the tenants when they first inspected the home and that they replied "yes" when she asked "whether one bathroom was sufficient for five girls".

The listing disappeared from the domaa.com.au website on Thursday, soon after the Mercury's inquiry.