Elderly granny thrown out

July 24, 2012, 6:18 pm Neil Doorley Today Tonight

Following a family feud an elderly mother has been turfed out of the home she rented off her son, a high-ranking army officer, for sixteen years.

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When he wanted her out she refused to move, and it all went downhill from there.

A mother and son property battle is proving that family and investments sometimes don't mix.

Police were called in to evict 70-year-old Maxine Foster from the house she's called home for sixteen years.

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She might have lost her case before a magistrate, but her appeals to be left alone kept coming.

“I am at the end of my rope,” Maxine said.

In the end she ran out of time and hope. Struggling to grab some possessions - including her pet cat, Quiche - Maxine slowly made her way out, as the locksmiths make their way in.

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So how could all this end in tears, especially when the landlord is her own son?

Speaking the day before her eviction, Maxine told us her son - a high ranking army officer - had tried to put up her rent late last year, causing their relationship to sour.

It would have been the first increase since 1996, when Maxine started renting the house under a private agreement for $140 a week.

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“I said ‘I am after all your mother’ and he said ‘maybe so, but I am your landlord’,” Maxine said.

Maxine says she offered to pay an extra $20 a week, but her son then decided to put the house on the market, and she started receiving phone calls from real estate agents.

“They were saying ‘we're coming through for inspection and these are three open days’ and I said ‘like hell you are’,” Maxine said.

From the time she moved in Maxine believes she's spent about $15,000 turning the house into a home.

Even though her son was offering $10,000 when she moved out, and another $10,000 when the house was sold - as an incentive for her to move - Maxine refused to budge.

“I’m not for sale, and I don't want his money,” she said.

Claiming she couldn't afford to pay to stay anywhere else, this family feud ended up before Queensland's Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which ruled against Maxine.

Joan Carr has watched this fight take a huge toll on her close friend, who has also battled cancer.

“She always thought so much of Kerry, always talking about him - what a wonderful son he is - and then suddenly, this happened,” Carr said.

Maxine is now homeless. Driven out of her home, she is now facing an uncertain future.

This reporter is on Twitter at @NDoorley



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