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Perth mum scolded for hanging baby clothes in her carport

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If you looked into someone's car port and saw baby clothes hanging up, would you be offended?

It seems someone has too much time on their hands after Atwell resident Laura Ross got a ticking off for hanging laundry in the car port of her rental home after someone made an anonymous complaint.

Speaking to WAtoday, Ms Ross said her troubles began with a "Mt. Washmore" of laundry that had piled up last week after a busy period of Mother's Day and birthday celebrations and a house guest staying with the family.

Tackling the big pile, Ms Ross threw a load in the washing machine and when it was done the soggy mess went into the dryer. 

"You can imagine our distress when a strong smell of electrical burn filled the house and we discovered our dryer was kaput," Ms Ross said.

"My partner tried to fix ours. No luck. I took some to my sisters. Mostly clothes for my older two kids."

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With the laundry pile getting larger, Ms Ross needed a better solution. But with rain on the horizon the backyard clothesline was out of action, and they are not allowed to hang anything off the back patio. 

"On Saturday we decided that something had to be done. We put up four lines in the car port filling them with two loads of baby clothes. Not my old granny knickers, not obscene shirts. Baby clothes," Ms Ross said.

"On Sunday morning these were removed and some of my other kids clothes were put up. Once again, nothing disgusting or offensive. Kids clothes."

Then on Monday, Ms Ross said she was at Princess Margaret Hospital when her partner rang to say their real estate agent had informed him a complaint had been made about the washing hanging in the car port. 

"According to the email from our estate agent, she had received a complaint from someone in our street about our car port and our bins," Ms Ross added.

"We have rented here for 20 months now. I thought we got along with the majority of our neighbours. It really was upsetting that instead of coming to us and discussing the issue, these people have decided to cause trouble for us with our estate agent.

"It upsets me that baby and children's clothing hanging under our car port is so offensive to someone that they need to make a complaint. It is also disgusting to me that they could not even be honest enough to put their real name and details on the complaint email."

Ms Ross said her lease does not allow the storage of any items in the car port or around the property that are visible from the road.

"I don't believe that hanging clothes to dry equates to storage of items but that is how they have interpreted it.

"We have since obtained a small dryer but will continue to utilise the lines under the car port for larger items like towels, sheets and blankets."

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