Nappies, rubbish and drug use: Rental abandoned in 'atrocious' state

A shocking video has emerged of an abandoned Auckland rental property littered with junk, broken furniture and drug paraphernalia.

The trashed property stinks of cigarettes, has broken fences and a nappy dumped in the garden, highlighting what one house owner calls "the joys of being a landlord".

In the video, shot this morningand set to jaunty music, the landlord wanders through the rubbish-strewn home, documenting a mess he says will take weeks to clean up.

"Yep it's great to be a landlord - everybody would wanna do it," he says as he opens the gate to reveal a nappy on the ground, a torn-down fence and sodden towels littering the garden.

"You too can work hard, get a deposit, buy a very expensive house and become a landlord."

The landlord said he had given the tenants the statutory 48 hours' notice before an inspection. They had abandoned clothes, toys and rubbish in their haste to leave, and were $2600 behind in rent, according to the video.

"It's just a complete mess and it's dirty and it smells of cigarettes and dog."

The property was left in a complete mess inside. Photo / Supplied

Evidence of drug-taking included an empty point bag left on a table and burnt tin foil on the floor. A smoke detector had also been torn from the ceiling.

The carpet was in an "atrocious" state, covered in stains and what appeared to be cigarette burns. It appeared a dog had been living in the lounge without the tenants gaining permission.

The tenants still had the key and had nearly two weeks when they could have collected their belongings but had not done so, the unidentified landlord said in the post.

"I have tried to contact these guys 20 to 30 times over the last week and I've got absolutely no response from them."

The video is titled: The Joys of Being a Landlord.

But Zealand Property Investors' Federation chief Andrew King said most tenants were actually really good.

"This video does represent a small proportion of tenants who do mistreat properties and they make it bad for everyone else."

He wanted to see better access to the Tenancy Tribunal, with much greater penalties for those who misbehaved and ways of catching up with people who left properties in such a state.

That would prevent them getting another property and hold them to account for the costly damage they were causing, King said.

"Without these rules people are just going to leave and get away with it."

King said this had been a problem for a long time.

"It takes an enormous amount to fix and the cost goes on the landlord and many times owners have just thought 'this is too much' and sell."

King advised landlords to make sure they did frequent inspections to check their property was being well maintained.

There are several rounds of tenancy reforms underway, with the first rule changes made earlier this year.

They included making tenants liable for accidental damage to a rental property rather than allowing them to rely on landlords' insurance. The amount is to be capped at four weeks' rent to avoid crippling bills for tenants.