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 faced hundreds of outraged comments.

She took to the Kmart Hacks and Décor Facebook page to share a “hack” she came up with to replace the stove in her rental home.

“Our landlord doesn’t fix the old stove, so we improvised,” she wrote.

She posted a photo of a melamine plate on top of the broken stove, with two Kmart induction cooktops on top.

“So far they work really well and have reduced the cooking time.”

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

‘Wait what? Can’t repair the stove? They have to. That is an infringement,” one woman wrote.

“I hope the homeowner has been reported to RTA, and that the property also has a legal obligation to ensure the rental property is compliant,” said another.

‘The law states that everything in a rented house must be in order. I would report the owner.’

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

“This is the state of our sorry rental market. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this,” one member wrote.

‘I also lived in a rented house for about five years!’ said another.

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

“I’m 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 needs to be fixed.”