Rental nightmare as astonishing photo shows the moment after a roof COLLAPSES on sleeping woman

A woman narrowly escaped serious injury after being crushed by a collapsing roof in her sleep, as the horrifying incident draws attention to the dire issues facing renters amid Australia’s housing crisis.

Melissa Ware, 49, from New Zealand, was visiting her sister on the Gold Coast last October when she woke up around 2am to a loud bang and the feeling of a “huge” weight pinning her to the bed.

In total darkness, unable to see what was happening, he began to panic.

“I couldn’t see anything until my sister and her husband opened the door to try to figure out what the noise was, and a bit of light came into the room…they were shocked to find me lying under it all begging for help.” Mrs. Ware told the mail.

A photo taken moments after the roof collapsed shows a distraught Ms Ware screaming in pain as she lay on the rubble-covered bed, only her head poking out from under the rubble.

Ms. Ware suffered head, neck and back injuries that required pain medication and physical therapy.

Now she struggles to sleep while dealing with anxiety, nightmares, and hypervigilance in the aftermath of the incident.

But Mrs. Ware’s furious sister says the collapse could have been prevented if the landlord had approved the necessary repairs to the Hollywell house.

She said she had contacted her rental property manager eight months earlier about the cracked and sagging ceiling in that room, but despite a maintenance worker coming to provide a quote, the issue was not addressed.

“I kept contacting Ray White and asking what was going on with him, but they kept saying they were waiting for a response from the owner,” said Ms Ware’s sister, who did not want to be named.

“I called and emailed them for months, even right before my sister came to stay with us, but nothing was fixed. And this was after we raised the issue with them at every inspection we had during the three or four years we lived there.

After the roof collapsed on Mrs. Ware, the property was deemed unsafe and they moved in shortly thereafter.

The family says the damaged roof was reported to the developer eight months earlier.

The family said it wasn’t the only time the roof collapsed, either, as falling debris nearly missed an elderly relative in February last year, when they first reported the problem.

Around that time, Queensland was being hit with heavy rain and flooding, with numerous reports of collapsed roofs on homes and businesses in the southeast of the state.

Ray White Runaway Bay director Ali Mian said the agency was sorry for Ms Ware’s injuries.

“We discovered the problems with the roof during a routine inspection by the property manager,” he said.

‘We informed the owner of the maintenance issue and had been awaiting instructions from the owner to engage a tradesman.

“We are sorry that anyone was injured in this accident. The owner is now undergoing a complete repair and renovation of the spare room on his property.’

Slater and Gordon’s public liability attorney, Peter Adams, said the incident shows what can happen if tenant concerns are neglected.