A complete stranger has stepped forward and offered her Nanaimo home to a family whose rental home has been deemed uninhabitable by the city.

Penny and Steve Sandirfer moved from Ontario to Vancouver Island this week, expecting to live with their four children in a home they had rented through Craigslist. They knew it would be a fixer-upper, but discovered that it was infested with pests, mould and needles.

After learning of the couple's story, Paula Ostojich offered to sleep in her basement to make room for the Sandirfers upstairs in the house.

Penny Sandirfer was in tears as she toured Ostojich's home Friday.

"It's just overwhelming, and I'm grateful someone would open their home up for us -- somebody that that doesn't know us," she told CTV News.

The city has barred anyone from living at 787 Albert Street, the house the Sandirfers signed a lease for, until major upgrades are complete.

The couple says they agreed by email to do some clean-up and renovation in exchange for reduced rent and paid landlord Michael Lipnitsky $1,800 for a damage deposit and the first month's rent before leaving Ontario.

"What we were led to believe was that what it needed was to patch some holes and paint and do a bit of flooring work," Steve Sandirfer said.

But Lipnitsky and his wife Irina are telling a different story. They showed CTV News emails that they say they sent to the Sandirfers, describing in detail the damage done by the three previous tenants.

"It has been sent to them that it's not suitable for people to live," Lipnitsky said.

He says he offered to do the repairs, but the Sandirfers wanted to do it themselves.

"I ordered the job with the contractor -- I have proof. I told him the job should go ahead; next day I told him to stop everything, they chose to do everything by themselves," he said.

Lipnitsky, a realtor, says he's been bombarded by complaints and threats since Sandirfer's story was publicized.

"All my business is my reputation -- it's been destroyed completely. I am absolutely out of business," he said.

For their part, the Sandirfers are accepting some responsibility for renting the home without seeing any photos first.

"I have learned the biggest lesson in my life. I will never, ever just trust somebody. I will definitely go further to check things out," Penny Sandirfer said.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Penny Daflos