"I opened the door and the smell engulfed me. I could smell the stench before I took a step inside.

"When I walked in the tenant was sitting naked on his chair with a blanket over himself watching porn, not even wanting to turn anything off. No shame whatsoever. He just sat there as I walked through the door; he just looked at me and carried on what he was doing.

"The smell got worse as I proceeded to the bathroom. It was disgusting. It was hard to distinguish what particular aspect was causing the vile smell because there were so many nasty and dirty smells going on.

"That was the worst property I've ever seen. The walls that were once white were now yellow. Once you see it and smell it … I couldn't stick around in there for more than two minutes. I just had to get out and go."

"The man had lived there for 16 years and never cleaned a day he was there.

"It seriously smelt like death in there and the only cleaner that will touch the place is the crime-scene cleaning team."

The property manager explained that she was warned about the state of rental properties in this specific low socio-economic Bay of Plenty town, however, she couldn't prepare for what she would walk in to.

"It's one of those things that if this was a rental in any other part of New Zealand it would have been absolutely disgusting and despicable and you wouldn't put up with it in your rental property, but in this neighbourhood anything goes."

Unfortunately, her horror home inspection experience wasn't isolated to the single visit.

The property manager says there are a number of homes in the gang-riddled town that are not fit to live in for animals, let alone humans.

She described the state of a number of homes in the town as "some of the worst you're ever likely to see in New Zealand".

Images reveal the disgusting grime and dirt thas collected on the shower walls of a Bay of Plenty property. It is understood the bathroom hadn't been cleaned for 16 years.

"You'd go in for inspections and there would be holes in walls and doors, places would have a permanent stench and homes would be riddled with fleas.

"Many tenants had dogs and would let them p*** and s*** on the floor. They'd just let their kids do whatever they want and the hygiene levels were non-existent.

"The ceilings and walls use to be white, now they're yellow. A lot of the tenants do not clean, let alone themselves. Most people wouldn't go a day or two without washing themselves but these tenants would go years without washing.

"They have dishes they don't wash ... They could be living in these flats for years and years and not a single surface in that house would have been cleaned."

While the property manager has come across a number of disgusting tenants, she admits that many landlords in the area are not much better themselves.

Speaking to the Herald the property manager said that many of the homes and flats were purchased for $20,000-30,000 and revealed that a lot of the owners know what they're getting themselves in to.

She explained that a lot of the landlords were either hesitant or refused to pour money into fixing, cleaning or investing in properties knowing that they'd struggle to find clean and tidy tenants.

"They're getting buggerall rent. You get what you pay for. If you're not willing to invest in a good area of town they've got to accept they're going to get shitty tenants.

"Some landlords aren't willing to invest time, effort and care into their homes and in turn they're attracting a certain type of tenant who isn't house proud."

"In a normal situation, we would absolutely issue a 14-day breach notice which outlines what the tenants have breached in the agreement and what it is you want them to remedy.

"In any normal circumstance if anyone kept their house in a disgusting state it would be a no-brainer. In my opinion, they'd be given notice and be told to get out.

"It sounds sad but in this area you could issue breach notices and terminate their tenancy but who else are we going to get in?

"When I started in this particular town I followed the book to the letter – I thought 'how could anyone live like this' – but I soon realised that if you kicked them out the next tenant would be similar.

"What is the calibre of person I'm going to attract here? Unfortunately, a lot of the time they're going to be similar characters and that's why homeowners are hesitant to pump money into their homes ... It is a case of matching the tenant with the house."