Artlan Menzies: rental nightmare

Back in 2022 I rented out my spare room to Art. I very clearly and deliberately specified in the Flatmates ad that I would not take any Centrelink recipients, nor accept any SA Housing bond agreements.

So I was confident that when Art contacted me through Flatmates he would meet the criteria. Oh, was I wrong.

Art and his sister turned up at the appointment time and were both very charming. She explained that Art had been unable to find accommodation and so had been living in a tent in their garden. This while Adelaide was in a long heatwave of 40º days. I felt sorry for him.

He was polite, said he suffered from Depression—who hasn’t at some stage—and that he’d be no trouble.

Red flags: Art was a Centrelink recipient and had no bond but a SA Housing email.

Irrespective of that, I opened my heart and let him take the room, because I like helping those who haven’t enjoyed the luck that I have.

This lovefest ended abruptly the very next night.

Art stormed out of his bedroom and straight into the living room where I was reading. Very loudly and aggressively he accused me of having gone into his room without his permission. I assured him I hadn’t, but he insisted I had and he was going to kill me.

I spoke to him calmly and assured him I hadn’t gone into his room, even though I was entitled to, and he eventually huffed his way back to his room. At which point I text his sister and asked her to talk him down, which she seemingly did. About half an hour later he sheepishly came back down to me and apologised, saying “I really wouldn’t kill you.” “I don’t know that,” I replied.

He seemed to calm down after that, and I put it all down to a psychotic episode and nothing to worry about. Little did I know.

Just for fun, here’s a list of the adventures I had with Art

• Didn’t clean his skid marks from the toilet, despite being asked to many times

• Did not contribute to the cleaning and maintenance of the house despite being asked to, and with such tasks being part of his Rental Agreement
• Smoked marijuana in his bedroom, despite the whole house and gardens being ‘no smoking’ zones, as clearly stated in the original online advert and in the Rental Agreement
• His room stank after he moved out, the carpet had to be ripped up and thrown out (did he spill iced coffee on the carpet? He was a fiend for 2ltr bottles of FUIC)
• Art marked the bedroom walls, which will need the whole room repainting
• Would shout very loudly at 3am in the manner of a death metal singer
• Has been known to throw toilet rolls around the toilet and not pick them up and put them back in the toilet roll container
• Left the back door unlocked at night after he had been outside to smoke marijuana; the door was often still unlocked when I got up next morning
• Accused me vehemently and threateningly of reducing the speed of his internet connection, on multiple occasions. When Telstra came and fixed the problem, reassuring him that it was their fault not mine, he didn’t apologise to me for the frequent accusations
• Threatened my life on his second night with me
• Often angry
• Often ignored me and didn’t respond to ‘hello’
• Frequently abused me and threatened me with physical violence
• Art experienced many psychotic episodes
• Despite offering him friendship and a safe roof over his head, he has decided that I was his enemy and went out of his way to make my life difficult, including singing along loudly to his favourite death metal songs at all hours of the day and night, and pushing me whenever our paths crossed in my house. Frequently called me a ‘c_nt’ when doing so
• Has many instances of paying the rent and utilities bills when he felt like it, not when he was contractually obligated to. When reminded of his obligations to pay on time he threw temper tantrums
• Often (read ‘always’) behaved like an entitled teenage boy who had been spoilt and accommodated rather than be taught the ‘consequences’ of his behaviour. He called me all sorts of names and expended considerable energy taunting me with what he no doubt thought were witty insults.
• Stuffed the heating/aircon vent in his room with six sheets of A4 paper. I know they are his papers because he wrote all over them with the same pen and in the same handwriting, and on one sheet had been practicing his signature. Aircon electricians will tell you that what Art did is extremely dangerous and could have ended costing me a lot of money to fix the whole system

Eventually, as Art’s behaviour, anger, attitude and psychotic episodes got worse and more frequent, I decided to pull the plug on his time in my house.

Whoever allows him to rent a room in their house—good luck!