A young man living in a Carlton share house said he and other tenants had attempted to alert their landlord of the issues with the roof and the balcony weeks before it dangerously collapsed.
The terracotta-tiled roof of the second-storey Drummond Street terrace house collapsed just after 6pm last night – narrowly missing a couple sitting below it.
Lulu Masilo was visiting her boyfriend at the time and said she owes him for saving her life.
“We were chilling out on the porch, hanging out having cuddles,” Ms Masilo told 9NEWS.
“We decided to get up and then we heard rumbling and some tiles fell from the roof.
“I sprinted forward onto the lawn to get away from it all but Jake pulled me back. He one-hundred percent saved my life,” she said.
Her boyfriend, Jake Oskam, said tenants had been trying to report the ageing roof and tiles to their landlord for “months”.
“The roof was collapsing and we’d been saying it for a while. Apparently the landlord contacted builders and got a quote… but it had been a month and it was literally falling down,” he said.
“It was just creaking, the tiles were falling."
Mr Oskam said because the group living in the home (at some stages up to 13 people) weren’t proper tenants, they lacked legal rights.
“It’s just people who are travelling or people who need somewhere to stay for a while. We pay a bond to the people before us, then pay cash rent,” he said.
“I feel pretty screwed over.”
9NEWS understands the Glen Iris man who owns the property is known to the local council and owns multiple properties.
He has indicated to the temporary tenants they won’t be receiving their $600 bonds back.
Mark O’Brien from the Tenants Union of Victoria said the failing property standards were unreasonable.
“There’s no reason the tenants shouldn’t be given their bonds back,” he said.
Firefighters said crews were called just after 6pm and had an engineer assess the damage.
“It is an older building,” Melbourne Fire Brigade Central Distract Commander Greg Badrock said.
“The other occupants were moved to the back of the house in a safe area…they’re very lucky.
"They heard it come down with a crash…they’re lucky the level below didn’t come down,” Mr Badrock said.
The group has been provided temporary accommodation in Docklands before they must find somewhere else to live.