52 Summerhill Road, Reservoir VIC 3073

This property was once a boarding house that had been repurposed into a full rental home. When we moved in back in 2017, it was already in poor condition but still somewhat functional. It had two kitchens, three bathrooms, five back doors and several separated backyards filled with crumbling sheds and structures. Half the house had no heating and that section, made from bluestone, was freezing in winter. Two rooms were marked uninhabitable by council but were simply blocked off by a staircase that didn’t reach the floor. From the start, there was a leak in the ceiling that the landlord openly said he would never fix. By the time we left in 2020, the leak had spread across five rooms. We left buckets under each one as a parting note. Despite all this, the landlord was oddly kind and communicative, just unwilling to spend a cent on repairs. He told us we’d be the last tenants due to the condition, but I drove by recently and the place is still being rented out today.