Landlord finds 4 snakes, scorpions, bugs, and tarantula in rubbish left behind by tenant

• Landlord also finds a tarantula, a dead fish, bugs, and scorpions.
• Tenants used COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to refuse him to access house for inspecting it, says landlord.
• Phil calls animal cruelty department and gives tenants a month to take out rest of their belongings.

CUMBRIA: A landlord faced a horrifying moment after finding out four snakes, including an enormous boa constrictor, amid a mountain of rubbish left behind by an evicted tenant. However, two snakes were found dead.

The landlord’s nightmare did not just end there as he also found a tarantula, a dead fish, bugs, and scorpions in the house, The Sun reported.

Phil Tewkesly — the landlord — said that the tenants used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to refuse to access the house for inspecting it.

When he went inside the house, Phil said he got surrounded by mounds of rubbish including clothes, books, cups, bottles, newspapers, and many other things.

Describing the house as “a rubbish dump with a roof on it”, the 47-year-old said it was filled with nothing but junk.

Talking about the tenants, he said that he had been wanting to evict them for a long time, adding that one of them claimed to be an animal rescuer and bragged about looking well after the creatures.

The boa constrictor found in the home was a “rescued” snake which was found among the junk. 

"It was unbelievable, the sheer volume of, not just belongings, but actual rubbish and food. I've never seen anything like it in my life — it was like a rubbish dump with a roof on it,” said Phil.

"I saw this huge tank and it was dirty. I looked a bit closer into the tank and got the shock of my life — there was this gigantic snake curled up. I was terrified, I screamed and ran out of the house because the shock of seeing something like that was unbelievable,” he added.

According to the neighbours, the former tenants were “hoarders” who used to get deliveries but never threw anything out.

Giving more view of the inside of the house, Phil said “there was mould growing from the carpet and it was full of urine, mealworms — you name it, it was rotten.”

He said that the daughter’s room was the worst which he and his partner had cleared. “We had to run out of the house heaving and retching numerous times because of the stench of urine,” he said.

Phil issued a formal notice to the tenants and asked them to vacate the house — but they refused to leave for another year, without giving the rent.

Later, the landlord called the animal cruelty department RSPCA that took the pets out of the house and the tenants were given a month to take out the rest of their belongings.

RSPCA’s spokesperson said that an investigation regarding the mistreatment is underway.