The mum said she "failed" the inspection after she didn’t pick up her son’s toys. Photo / TikTok
The mum said she "failed" the inspection after she didn’t pick up her son’s toys. Photo / TikTok
A New South Wales mum has shared her shock and frustration after “failing” her latest real estate inspection for an insane reason.
Mum Samantha Smith, who has rented the Newcastle home for the past seven years but is now looking for a new property, said she had “failed” an inspection after a real estate agent took issue with her toddler’s collection of toys.
Despite the home’s issues, which included mould and hazardous fixtures, Smith said the agent was more concerned by trivial gripes.
The mum took her frustration to social media, sharing a now-viral video of the family home.
“I have a one-year-old, right, and the real estate [agent] came for an inspection,” Smith says in the clip, showing her lounge room with a mattress in one corner.
“My partner sleeps there because, you know, we have a one-year-old and he gets up at 4.30am. I don’t want him to wake us up.
“I failed because I didn’t tidy up. I need to tidy up the toys. Sorry? I have a one-year-old.”
In the video, the colourful toys could be seen stacked inside the cubby holes of a small bookcase, with some larger items tucked away into a corner.
“Are they allowed to say that, to say, ‘Tidy up [your] son’s toys?’” Smith asked.
Smith said the agent also took issue with the mattress in the living room, claiming she “couldn’t access” parts of the house.
Smith, however, walked comfortably around the mattress to demonstrate that it wasn’t an issue.
She claimed that the home was “actually spotless”, as a cleaner attended weekly and “everything” was cleaned regularly.
Smith listed several more issues the agent was unhappy with, including a packed linen press that she said was the “only cupboard” in the house.
“This is the only cupboard where I can store our linen press stuff and our food, because the whole house has no other cupboards,” she explained.
“What a cow. Like, how is what’s in my cupboard any of her business?”
The mum said she was criticised for a messy linen cupboard. Photo / TikTok
As well as the mattress where her partner sleeps. Photo / TikTok
The Newcastle local said what frustrated her most were the repairs that needed to be done to the home, which she said were overlooked by the agent.
“That’s black mould. I’m not washing that, that’s not my business,” she said, showing a stain on the ceiling of the home’s veranda.
Smith also showed a piece of wood trim that was falling off the wall, rotting wood on the outside deck, a handrail coming away from the stairs and a broken gate that wouldn’t shut.
She said they had been living on the property for seven years and paid $550 per week for rent — on top of an extra A$150 per week for a storage unit, due to the home’s lack of storage.
Smith said the agent wasn’t concerned by potential black mould. Photo / TikTok
She also showed a badly damaged handrail. Photo / TikTok
“I’m pretty pissed off. Like, the fact that there’s stuff that needs to be fixed that is severe,” Smith said.
“We could fall through the deck, the corner could fall off and split our head open … Why is she judging me for the way I live?”
Many of the video’s 75,000 viewers shared similar stories.
“Mine said I needed to unpack some neatly stacked boxes in the spare room,” one commenter said.
“There is no other room for them. They aren’t blocking anything or against the walls.”
