Paradise homeowner spends month picking up needles, renovating after nightmare tenants
Ordeal cost nearly $10K in lost rent, materials and labour
If Matt Doyle encounters another problem tenant like the one he evicted in April, he might just drag them out kicking and screaming.
After all, he says, the cost of fighting criminal charges might be cheaper than the cost to renovate an entire basement apartment again.
Doyle spent last month picking needles out of heaps of trash and clothing — and was then forced to store what was left at his own cost.
"I got a five-gallon bucket of needles," he told CBC News on Saturday. "I just used a pair of tongs I got at the dollar store … Went through every bit of stuff he had and started picking them up."
Doyle first spoke with CBC News in April, on the day sheriffs' officers arrived at his house prepared to remove the tenant and his girlfriend.
Nobody was home, so a locksmith was called to change the locks.
Possession of the basement apartment was finally returned to Doyle, after he first served them with an eviction notice in January.
The tenants were served with three eviction notices, appealing each one and buying time to legally remain inside the home. During that time, the damage to the apartment grew.
Major overhaul completed
After eviction finally took place, Doyle spent the entire month of May cleaning and renovating the apartment with his cousin and some friends.
They ripped out the flooring in each room, repainted every wall, replaced all the heaters, fixed the air exchange system, unclogged drains, put in a new hot water tank and more.
The final cost for materials alone was $5,700 — not counting four months of unpaid rent and the time off work required to remove the biohazardous waste and fix the apartment.
On top of all the other costs, Doyle was forced to pay $350 to store the belongings left in the apartment for three months. The price tag would have been much higher, but a friend offered to store the tenant's car for free.
On May 31, the tenant showed up to retrieve his belongings.
A quick descent from decency
Doyle said the man kept the apartment in good condition for three years, paying his rent on time and staying quiet for the most part.
Things changed when he began hanging around with a new crowd and fell into the throes of addiction, Doyle said. He lost his job and became delinquent on rent, and the upstairs neighbours complained of terrifying noises.
When the tenant was evicted, Doyle walked into the apartment to find it in disarray. There were uncapped needles strewn on the floor, stashed in pop bottles and hidden among stacks of dirty laundry.
"I had a piece of four-by-four with a nail in the end of it," Doyle said. "I was sticking the nail with the board into the clothes and throwing it in a kitbag."
Paradise Dental reached out to help Doyle, giving him plastic containers for biohazardous waste and disposing of the needles for him. Shopper's Drug Mart also helped out with a container.
Doyle said inquiries to his insurance company have gone nowhere.
He could recoup some money through small claims court, but he has no interest in pursuing the matter anymore.
"All that's going to do is cost me more money," he said. "And then what can you get out of somebody that don't work? It's a waste of my time."
After Doyle's call for changes to the Residential Tenancies Act, Service NL Minister Perry Trimper said the government planned to launch a review of the legislation.
Two weeks ago, a petition was launched on Change.org to protect landlords by altering the act.
The petition has 83 signatures, with several landlords leaving their experiences in the comment section.
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