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Landlords get a bad rap, often unfairly, but now from Melbourne comes the story of one who gave a long-term tenant the home she was renting.
The magnanimous gesture is typical, 9 News reports, of the late self-made millionaire, who fancied himself a philanthropist in the waning years of his life.
It was 23 years ago that Jane Sayner went house hunting in Melbourne and found a 2 bedroom unit with a garden in St. Albans—a northwest suburb of the city.
She liked the garden the most, but she liked the area too—and also the landlord.
John Perrett, she described, was the definition of generosity. Having amassed a multi-million dollar fortune by himself, he was also a pharmacist, community man, soccer lover, and a property investor.
“I got a phone call from him one day and he said, ‘I want you to talk to my solicitor, he is here at the moment and can you give him your full name because I’m leaving you the unit,’” Sayner told 9 News, remembering that fateful phone call.
She said she pinches herself to this day, more than 6 years later.
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Mr. Perrett died in 2020 in his mid-eighties due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. The house he gave to Sayner, while his fortune he donated to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, at which he received a kidney transplant that lasted him 30 years.
The donation totaled AUD$19.6 million.
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“We are extremely grateful as a department of the hospital at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for such a bequest. It’s just amazing,” said Professor Nigel Toussiant from the hospital, who added that it would support patients and operations for decades to come.
Sayner retired at 74 and still lives in the home her late landlord gave her, thanking the man under her breath every few days.
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