People visiting this house must walk past old car bodies, a dismantled engine, a car battery, a refrigerator, tyres and a go-kart frame.

The backyard of the property is also untidy and is feared to be a haven for rats.

Port Pirie Regional Council has tried repeatedly to persuade the occupier of the property to clean it up, but has been forced to start legal proceedings that could result in a $120,000 fine.

A man who answered the door of the house on Thursday claimed he was being “harassed” by the council and was “sorting” through the material with a view to cleaning it up.

Part of the problem in enforcing clean-up laws has been that people are removing materials and then putting them back on the property.

The man said he needed motor spare parts for his car and these were among the items.

“Am I supposed to live on dog food because I have to pay for parts?” he said.

“A lot of people would say, ‘clean up’, but you have to sort it first.”

The man, who described himself as a disabled pensioner, said he did not own the property, but was related to the owner. He did not want to be named. “I live at a different address

completely. I am the one who keeps

getting harassed,” he said.

The veranda where we spoke was shared by a discarded refrigerator which the man said was being used as a cupboard.

He said he had a “bad back” which made it difficult to clean up.

“We keep getting people dobbing us in, looking over the back fence, and saying certain things should not be there,” he said.

“Since we started moving things out of the backyard to clean it, they started slapping notices on it. Either way, we lose.”

Council’s environmental services manager, Allan Cotton, said prosecutions had been launched under the Local Government Act and the Development Act.

“We are not harassing him. We have negotiated with him to bring his property to a standard that is acceptable to the community and we have been forced to take action,” he said.

He said the man had created a “junkyard” without council’s consent and staff had unsuccessfully

“pleaded” with him to clean it up.

The man declined to be photographed or identified by name when visited by The Recorder.

PHOTO: JUNKYARD...Everything from car bodies to old tyres, an engine and a refrigerator litter the front yard of this Goode Road house.