Australian woman’s Kmart stove hack exposes ‘illegal’ landlord practices

One woman’s Kmart hack has gone viral – but instead of receiving praise for her genius idea, she has faced hundreds of outraged comments.

She took to the Kmart Hacks and Décor Facebook page to share a ‘hack’ she had come up with to replace the stove in her rental property.

‘Our landlord won’t fix the old stove so we improvised,’ she wrote.

She posted a photo of a melamine sheet sitting on top of the broken stove, with two induction cookers from Kmart on top.

‘So far, they work very well and have cut down on cooking time.’ 

A ‘hack’ like this would normally be praised in the group, but members leapt to the comments section to call out the woman’s landlord.

‘Wait, what? Won’t fix the stove? They have to. That’s a breach,’ one woman wrote.

‘I hope the homeowner has been reported to RTA, plus the real estate has also got a legal obligation to make sure the rental property is compliant,’ said another.

‘The law states that everything within a rental property has to be within sound working order. I’d be reporting the owner.’

Others called out the state of the rental market across Australia, with many saying they too had experienced faulty appliances in their rentals.

The woman fitted out her kitchen with two $55 induction cooktops from Kmart (one seen here) because her landlord wouldn’t fix her broken stove

‘This is the state of our woeful rental market. I’m sorry you have to deal with this,’ one member wrote.

‘I lived like this for about five years in a rental too!’ said another.

Several members called for her to take legal action, and told her where to look to find the right legislation.

‘Not sure what state you’re in, but in Queensland it’s an emergency repair,’ one person said.

‘As a landlord, it’s classified as a necessity and must be fixed.’

Several Facebook users encouraged the woman to take legal action because ‘the law states that everything within a rental property has to be within sound working order’ (stock image)