‘Financially ruined’: Landlord faces $2m clean-up

They looked like ordinary tenants. They sounded legitimate. But for a growing number of Victorian landowners, those rental agreements allegedly ended with asbestos, industrial waste and a nightmare clean-up bill.

What began as a simple lease agreement has, for some owners on Melbourne’s fringe, become a financial and environmental disaster, with properties allegedly transformed into illegal dump sites almost overnight.

Jacob Cheu knows that nightmare all too well.

The Brisbane-based owner said his family’s property in Sunbury, 38km from Melbourne, was rented out just four months ago to a man who appeared to tick every box.

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Speaking to A Current Affair, Cheu said the prospective tenant claimed he wanted the land for horses and even brought his child along, giving the impression everything was legitimate.

“They say they wanted to rent the property for their horses, they brought their child along, so everything looked very above board,” he said.

“There’s nothing, you know, suspicious at that point.”

Property owner Jacob Cheu found mountains of industrial waste and a clean-up bill he fears could reach $2 million. Source: A Current Affair

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Cheu admits the property was not perfect, with the house previously vandalised.

But what he says was left behind by the tenant was on an entirely different scale.

Instead of a standard rental dispute, Cheu says he found mountains of industrial waste on the site, including asbestos, in what appears to be part of a growing “rent-to-dump” scheme affecting properties across Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

He fears the clean-up could cost as much as $2 million.

“They (EPA) say there’s 5500 tonnes of rubbish,” he said.

“How do you even get that much rubbish in a short span of time?”

Cheu rented out the property just four months ago. Source: A Current Affair

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To put that figure in perspective, 5500 tonnes is roughly the same weight as 3667 standard cars or 3000 houses, if you count only the structural materials of a light timber-framed home.

Cheu said he was first alerted to the situation after receiving a call from Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority about a fire on the property.

“I got a phone call from the EPA saying that there has been a fire on the property and there’s a lot of rubbish and that they’re gonna investigate,” he said.

“So in the span of a weekend apparently he doubled the amount of rubbish that’s already there.”

Under Victorian law, Cheu could still be left responsible for cleaning up the site, despite insisting he had nothing to do with the dumping.

“You wouldn’t think that I’ll be financially ruined by something that I didn’t do,” he said.

As devastating as Cheu’s case is, he is not alone.

This is no ordinary rental nightmare. Source: A Current Affair

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In neighbouring Diggers Rest, less than 10 minutes’ drive away, 71-year-old retiree and grandmother Suji An says she was caught in an almost identical alleged scheme after leasing out her hobby farm on June 25.

An told The Age that two men contacted her to store a small fleet of trucks on the 15-acre property for their plumbing business, keep horses in the back paddock and mow the grass.

Instead, within four weeks, she says the property was covered in almost 4000 cubic metres of industrial waste.

Scores of demolished houses were allegedly disgorged in long rows by hundreds of tip truck drivers, who paid as little as $1000 in cash to dispose of their loads.

She says she contacted police, council and the EPA within one week of leasing the land, but was ultimately told she was legally responsible for the clean-up.

Neighbouring properties have also been hit. Source: A Current Affair

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An has reportedly been informally quoted between $600,000 and $2 million for the job, depending on whether the waste contains asbestos.

Luke McCrone from Victorian Tippers United said the financial incentive was enormous.

“So to take a truck and trailer, 26 tonnes to a tip, you’re looking at about $9000, a little bit less,” McCrone told A Current Affair.

“I’ve seen ads on Facebook, people offering sites like this to tip for $1100.”

The EPA says it is ramping up inspections, surveillance and enforcement against illegal waste dumping.

In a statement, the watchdog said it “uses all appropriate powers in our remit to detect, disrupt and hold those responsible for illegal waste dumping to account”.

“We are conducting more inspections, greater surveillance and taking strong enforcement on the persons conducting illegal waste dumping,” a spokesperson said.

“EPA wants people to be alert to offenders who falsely state their purpose for renting a property and instead use it as an illegal waste dump site.

“People considering renting acreage, particularly sites on the city’s fringe, should know who their prospective tenants to reduce their chances of becoming victims.

“Landlords, through no fault of their own, may be liable if a tenant leaves behind an environmental hazard and either abandons a site or cannot meet the costs themselves.”