So… I've never been in this position and I don't know what my rights are or what is the norm, so I decided to do what you do… turn to ozb for advice.
I inspected an apartment at a great location, there was items inside the house and it was overall dirty which is somewhat what you expect when someone is moving out so I kinda assumed it would all be removed and cleaned by the time someone new would move in.
Today I went into collect keys and the first thing the agent said was- " the house is filthy dirty, I don't get disgusted easily but I'm disgusted, just be warned" furniture hasn't been cleared - though the word furniture is rather generous for the moldy, broken and torn pieces of large garbage that was left behind. Nothing is realy usable or liveable. The floor are disgustingly covered in all sorts of rubbish, benches and draws have sticky shit and dirt all over it. The toilet which I hadn't looked inside the bowl till the agent warned me.. hadn't been flushed in months and had litreal shit to the brim.
She first suggested I use the furniture - and I told her I didn't have a need for broken torn bits of things and had my own furniture. So they said they'd move it potentially but to move my things to the side till they could organise it. She also asked if I could just get cleaners to clean it myself.
And the real issue is she kept asking whether the agent who showed me the place had said they'd clean it up/or if they'd remove furniture. I mean does it really matter if she had or not ? Is there not a standard that a house should be liveable in order for an agency to rent them out ?
I refused to collect the keys and but I don't know where this leaves me. As I already paid rent and bond
Is there a scenario where they could turn this on me and expect me to deal with it? Clean up of this place no exageration would cost thousands - it's an apartment so moving large dirty furniture out on these stairs alone would cost a decent chunk. I never signed anything that said I accept the property in its current state nor did they ever ask.
What are my rights ? Is this normal or acceptable in any form ?
Something doesn't sound right here…!
You went to inspect the apartment which was a mess. Then you went to collect the keys (but you you say later on that you've never signed anything), then you say you refused to collect the keys. But you've already paid the rent and bond.
So what exactly have you done?
If you haven't signed anything, then demand your money back and find another place!
(To be honest, even if they cleaned it up, I wouldn't live there simply because these agents don't seem to have a clue what's going on. Imagine you needed some maintenance during your tenancy or you needed something fixed urgently - good luck with that!)