IT'S a taxpayer-funded house of horrors, a cockroach-infested fire trap covered in dog excrement. And it's at the centre of a bitter neighbourhood war.

For months the tenants of this Housing Department home in Goodna, west of Brisbane, have been living in squalor while their neighbours have been living in fear.

Chung Pham pays only $100 a week, or a third of the normal market value, to rent the home with her two young children, but not even the threat of eviction has convinced her to clean up her act.

Her run-ins with surrounding residents climaxed when Ms Pham and partner Vinh Le faced trial in the Ipswich District Court last week charged with assault.

Both were accused of punching and kicking their next-door neighbour, Sharon Molloy, on the ground in front of shocked onlookers including children.

On Thursday the jury found both not guilty after the defence argued it had been a two-sided brawl. But the street is clearly in turmoil.

Neighbour Leigh Cochrane is an American who met her husband on the internet and moved from the US with her daughter to Queensland's own version of the deep south.

Ms Cochrane hasn't had anything to do with her next-door neighbours since they put a hose through her window and drenched her lounge room.

The episode occurred after Ms Pham's young son knocked on her door and asked to play with her daughter, who was at school.

"I told him he'd have to come back later. The next thing I know his father is spraying a hose through my window. It went on for about five minutes.

"The whole loungeroom was flooded. My recliner was soaked. I called the police and he apologised."

Once she looked across to see Ms Pham's son flicking a lighter on and off.

"I don't think it's right, but I'm not the parent," she said.

Across the road retirees Colin and Judith Baker, whose son Corporal Michael Baker died in the Black Hawk helicopter tragedy in 1996, shake their heads at the mention of their neighbours.

They say they can't talk, but according to other residents the couple have seen their once peaceful haven turned into a nightmare.

They have been at the end of extreme abuse including being called "racists" for asking their neighbours to clean up, one resident said.

"They go off like a shotgun," the resident said.

"Swear? She knows a swear word for every letter in the alphabet. You can hear her up the other end of the street when she goes off.

"When their kids see you they give you the finger."

Complaints have been made to the Housing Department that Mr Le is living at the house without declaring it. Department staff told residents they couldn't find any evidence in the house of him living there.

When The Sunday Mail visited the house, Mr Le was visiting.

"I don't live here," he said.

Mr Le and Ms Pham declined to comment further.

Last month the family was given their last chance when the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal ordered them to clean up the home within five weeks or be evicted.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said the case had been adjourned until December 15 and there was nothing on file to indicate cleaning had been completed.

A Housing Department inspector warned Ms Pham she would be kicked out unless she tended to overgrown lawns, a veranda covered in dog faeces, cockroach infestation and fire safety hazards.

"Faced with such a prospect, the respondent Ms Pham has failed to do what all parents would do in the circumstances, to simply clean up," the tribunal found.

Originally published as Neighbours from hell refuse to clean up