A ‘well-off, Christian’ couple have been accused of squatting rent-free in a ritzy home worth millions after their bid to buy it was snubbed – but they just moved in anyway.
Schoolteacher Jeremy Hubbard and his singer/songwriter wife Rachel Savage reportedly occupied the 107-year-old home in Perth’s Shenton Park two years ago.
They told local community newspaper The Post that they had been renting the $2million Keightley Road home from its elderly owner, Marilyn Watson, 81.
They had even tastefully renovated the property at their own expense, they said, with Google Street View images charting its fall into disrepair before the couple restored it.
But Ms Watson and her nephew Greg Preston have dismissed the couple’s claim to be living there lawfully, and said Ms Watson has never even met them.
She said there had never been any rental agreement and didn’t want them in the house – but the couple had been refusing to leave, despite the owner’s requests.
‘She hasn’t authorised anybody to live there at any time and she certainly would never sign a lease for anybody to live there,’ Mr Preston said.
He said the home in Perth’s wealthy ‘golden triangle’ had been vacant since 2010 after it was damaged in a hailstorm and his aunt moved to a new home in Mandurah.
Mr Preston said he had found a card to his aunt from Ms Savage in 2022, calling the detached home beautiful and asking to purchase it.
But he insisted his aunt had not wanted to sell the house and did not want anyone else living there.
Ms Savage is a musician who has performed in Nashville and Los Angeles, while Mr Hubbard teaches at Kings College in Perth’s southern suburbs.
The couple have since deleted their social media accounts following the dispute and could not be reached by the Daily Mail.
Perth media has since filmed removal vans apparently clearing out the property, with Ms Savage and Mr Hubbard seemingly having moved out.
Locals have now questioned why the apparent model neighbours invested in renovating a home they apparently had no legal right to occupy.
‘I don’t agree with squatting but at least give them the option to pay rent, especially considering they have made improvements to the clearly derelict condition it was in,’ one said.
‘I don’t understand why the owner won’t rent the property out. To have a perfectly good house sitting empty, and was clearly rotting away, is terrible in a housing crisis.’
Another local revealed the couple were from well-off families and enjoyed regular overseas holidays and drove luxury cars.
‘This is not a sad case of a poor family with a baby needing a roof over their heads,’ they said.
‘Their wedding was quite a luxury event. They are both affiliated with large Christian churches and he is a regular golfer.
‘This is about taking what’s not theirs. That couple have no right to live in this house.’
In Western , squatters’ rights allow a person to claim legal ownership of land they have occupied without the owner’s permission if they have occupied the property for at least 12 years.
Jordan van den Lamb, a lawyer who is better known online as PurplePingers for his S*** Rentals website, publicly advocates for squatting in vacant properties.
‘Homes are for people to live in, not for people to make money off,’ he said.