A cancer patient and her elderly husband could be forced from their home after their tenant took them to court, despite owing them thousands of dollars in unpaid rent.
The couple, aged 67 and 84, could soon be evicted from their property in Melbourne‘s inner north after the tenant petitioned for an intervention order against them, to be ruled on next month.
Kez and Sammy (the couple’s aliases due to the intervention order) initially asked the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to evict the tenant after she owed them more than $7,100 in unpaid rent dating back to October 2025.
They have rented out the granny flat at the rear of their home for more than a decade.
Despite VCAT ruling the tenant could stay until February 3 before an eviction notice could be enacted, an appeal hearing gave the tenant more than two years to pay the rental arrears, plus an extra two weeks of free rent.
VCAT deputy president Kylea Campana’s order stipulates the couple can apply for another eviction order if the tenant fails to follow the payment plan.
Kez, who needs ongoing medical care and surgery for a series of aggressive, recurring skin cancers, said the ordeal has taken a serious toll on their ‘health, finances, and sense of safety’ in their own home.
‘Each new development feels like another blow, and the cumulative weight of it all is making it harder and harder to hold myself together,’ Kez said.
The elderly couple (not pictured) could be evicted from their own home within weeks (stock image)
‘We live only metres from the tenant, so there is no escape from the tension or the fear.’
The tenant has also recently served Kez with an intervention order ‘based on events that never occurred’.
The order could potentially force them from their home, if it is adopted in full when it goes before the courts.
Kez said she and her husband, who suffers from serious heart problems, rely on the granny flat’s $450 weekly rent to make ends meet.
The couple have now launched a GoFundMe to help cover their ongoing legal costs.
‘Since the VCAT decision, the situation has become frightening,’ she said.
‘We are now receiving a stream of demanding, demeaning, humiliating, and intimidating emails — ordering us to “fix this,” “store that”, unilaterally changing lease terms, and threatening to take us back to VCAT if we don’t obey.
‘The tenant is now enjoying repeated breaches of our agreement and basic tenancy obligations, with no consequences, while we are left to absorb the impact.’
Their tenant owed them more than $7,100 in unpaid rent, despite the couple covering her water, electricity and internet bills (stock image)
It’s believed the tenant, since the VCAT hearings, has paid rent for the first time since September.
Property Investors Council of Australia chair Ben Kingsley told the Herald Sun that Victoria was seeing a growing number of badly behaved tenants using ‘all the tricks in the book’ to stay in rental properties.
‘And the government has been supporting them with further rental reforms that make it very difficult for the owners to have control over their property,’ he said.
‘But the reality is, with all of these reforms, the unintended consequence is that we’re seeing a greater number of disputes.’