I used to rent out my ground floor flat, and at one time during festival seasons I had every room in my house rented out and slept in the studio.

I did meet some nice people.  I was particularly lucky in the first couple who came down from Brisbane for the Bluesfest and they gave me their thermal coffee plunger when they left. 

And I was lucky in the first tenant I had in the flat.  He was perfectly reasonable, he didn't mow the grass like he'd promised, but he did what he was good at - he got offcuts from his job as a council worker and built a handrail up the garden steps, did some terracing.  He managed to cram his two teenage sons in there when he had them to stay but basically the time came when he had no real choice but to leave the coast and live where he could get somewhere big enough to accommodate them all once he had a girlfriend and her children wanting to stay over as well.

He was no saint.  He was annoyed, reluctant, irritated and resentful.  I got to feel it of course and it got to the point I wanted him to leave as soon as possible so I put the rent up.  

I felt glad and relieved when he finally left.  But I wasn't at any point scared of him.  He was the first tenant so I was naive, but looking back and comparing them all, he does get the number one position as best tenant. 

The only one with no red flags.  Normal reasonable stable person.  Dependable.

The scariest one, when he arrived oh he coughed so delicately and tapped his chest.  He didn't have the deposit, just the two weeks rent and I was daft enough to go oh no problem we can catch up when you can and the next thing I know he has complained to the government Dept of Fair Trading, pretending that he gave me the money but I have not put it into a trust account.  That attracts a $2000 fine.  

It came with a long list of complaints and allegations, I was upset and wrote a long account covering all the complaints and then I sent it to my lawyer and let her deal with the Dept of Fair Trading - this was a good move and that was the end of his complaints but he knew what he was doing.  He could threaten physical violence as much as he liked and I couldn't complain unless he actually hit me.  The courts are that backed up that the only real way to legally remove him, ie get the police here in two weeks notice would be to sell the house, the new owner is entitled to vacant possession.

He left when he wanted to leave, he was going on a trip to check on his parents in South Africa.  He was not fun to be around, I shook for 5 months so he gets the spot at the bottom of the list.

But he's had some competition.

I decided I was too old, it was time to retire and with quite a bit of help from a friend I got organised and applied for the pension.  That's over a year ago now, so grateful for it.  It's very relaxing here!

My cat Lily, would be so pleased if she were here.  She was a very good companion.  It was her who upped and led the way out of my previous home, across the garden and into the studio.  When she was dying she used her last effort to point the finger at the tenants who were in the flat at the time, I scooped her up and she finished her time on the carpet in my studio here - I can't imagine what Darko would say if I rented out the flat again.