Sydney rentals: Landlord gives tenant mini dishwasher over fixing normal machine

A Sydney renter desperate to get their broken dishwasher fixed was instead gifted an infuriating alternative when his landlord instead bought a tiny, benchtop machine that can’t even fit dinner plates.

The renter shared photos of the mini dishwasher on Twitter showing it perched in his kitchen bench and how it struggled to fit any type of crockery or glassware. 

‘In peak renting in Sydney news, my landlord has decided that instead of fixing the dishwasher that’s been broken (since I moved in!) they would instead buy me the world’s smallest benchtop dishwasher that doesn’t even fit a dinner plate,’ the renter wrote.

The renter continued sharing their discontent in the comments, joking ‘you have to manually fill it with water like some kind of peasant’.

Viewers criticised the incident online saying that the landlord’s act was ‘stingy’.

One commenter pointed out the irony of the situation, revealing the landlord could’ve saved $100 if they’d simply paid for a normal-sized one. 

Online, the mini benchtop dishwasher retails for $427, whilst a normal-sized, freestanding dishwasher goes for $384. 

The mini dishwasher is advertised as a ‘game changer in the world of benchtop dishwashers’ and praises its feature of not needing a ‘water connection to operate’.

It can hold a plate up to a diameter of 22.5cm, whilst a standard dinner plate has a diameter of 25cm.

Users online were shocked with the mini dishwasher, expressing their confusion over the ‘fix’ 

The mini dishwasher sells for almost half a grand, significantly more than a normal sized one

One user said ‘When we say Eat the Rich … we definitely always mean all landlords,’ with another joking in response ‘Just don’t them eat off big plates – cause they won’t fit inside the dinky dishwasher’.

The Sydney renter’s hilarious conundrum inspired other tenants to tell their own horror stories. 

‘My landlord took years to replace the stove and then it was with the cheapest one on the market. I’ve paid over $130k in rent,’ one wrote.

Another said: ‘A friend’s landlord bought a new [dishwasher], had it installed in his house and gave their old one to the tenant’.

The landlord refused to clean the dishwasher and then invoiced the installation cost to the rental property address so they ‘could claim it against his tax return’, the commenter wrote. 

On average, rents have soared 10.3 per cent in Australia since the start of 2022 with a low supply of housing and the reopening of borders contributing to the squeeze.  

Australia’s rental market is more competitive than ever but especially in Sydney where hopeful tenants are regularly spotted queueing by the hundreds outside homes.

The national rental vacancy rate is at a record low 0.9 per cent, according to Domain research data.

A recent photo taken in Bondi, in Sydney’s east, showed applicants queuing outside a home to inspect it.  

This photo of a crowded open inspection in Bondi (pictured) sums up Sydney’s dire rental crisis, where desperate  tenants are competing for properties

 According to research firm PropTrack at the start of 2020 there were 41.8 per cent of advertised rentals on realestate.com.au under $400-a-week across Australia. 

But by September this year that figure had dropped to just 19.3 per cent.  

Capital city rental listings under $400 per week was just 16.4 per cent in September compared to 36.1 per cent in March 2020.

In Sydney, weekly rental prices rose by an average of 10 per cent year-on-year in the September quarter, with the median house rent climbing to $640 and the median unit rent rising to $520 per week.