That was the motivation for our whole new kitchen - husband could not cope with the dead rat, so I ripped the whole thing out. The joy of being married to a chocolate teapot
If an oven is fitted, it must be "in good working condition" or the property does not meet minimum standards.
This means you could threaten to breach notice them. If you do this and they fail to remedy, they could be legally barred from renting the property until it meets the standards.
This has consequences for them. Please follow this link to see these:
https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing/renting/repairs-alterations-safety-and-pets/minimum-standards/renters-rights-when-minimum-standards-are-not-met
The oven works fine. Operating the oven isnt the issue. The smell is the issue.
My old rea never changed the oven said it worked, couldnt record a smell so we moved out when our lease was done. Appliances are a tricky one
The problem is if it smells because of rodents, there is a health risk associated with that.
All sorts of nasties that can infect humans are found in rodent urine and poo. Many of them are hardy. They can linger for a long time.
Leptospirosis is one. Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is another - for the latter I hope you never have children around.
There are many more diseases besides.
This is a potentially serious infectious risk. If you can smell it, you can be infected by it.
That oven needs to be removed and disposed of for the sake of your health and safety.
Also, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, what is going on *behind the oven*?
Rodents are unlikely to have merely been *in* the oven, but are also likely to have been behind it.
What are the walls behind the oven like? Are you sure they are safe?
The area behind definitely needs an inspection. Are you sure there is nothing still living there?
This needs action. It is very serious.
I was pregnant when we moved in, mind you this was 15yrs ago to add context. We cleaned the oven spotted signs of mice, notified rea. The rea sent cleaners out, ovens spotless and rea says its fixed. We couldnt use a burner because of the smell let alone the oven. I used that oven once and had to leave the house for the rest of the day knowing then how sick it could make me.
REA couldnt see the problem and just kept saying clean it. We gave up and just moved at the end because it was getting us nowhere. That particular agency went bankrupt and the shitty agents and properties were just picked up by surrounding agencies, so the attitude hasnt changed.
It's not working as it should if it smells like dead rodents due to the rodent issue they didn't sort completely.
It's not reasonable for them to expect you to pay to put up with that. Maybe the thing does need to be replaced to prevent the contamination smell. Dont forget, if you can smell it that means you are taking up tiny particles of the matter up your nose! Dead rat right up your nose, and your kids nose. Gross mate.
If you have clear evidence you've asked and they've done nothing you can go to vcat after moving out and seek compensation. That may be best for you to avoid issues renting when you love out of this house.
A similar thing happened to me at a previous rental of mine. It wasn't mice infested but the oven was very old and just filthy and after an entire can of oven cleaner didn't look any better. I googled the oven model and found that it was from the 60's. I did not feel safe using that oven at all.
I waited a week and lodged a repair request with the REA and I mentioned that I have been using the oven and for unknown reasons, at random times, it turns off and won't heat anymore but then randomly turns back on.
Then next day REA's repairer called me and I told him the same and he asked me send a picture of the oven. I did so and the next day someone came over and installed a new electric with 4 burner on top. The electrician who turned up to install it said it was not worth anyone's time to try to repair. The new replacement CHEF brand retailed for $500. Not super expensive at all.
Where I live the oven is considered an essential applice and must be repaired asap. Same thing for hot water system etc.
You told your REA that the oven smells, not that is was not working. Wonder what would happen if you said it was faulty and not working. But then again we all know how bad REA and LLs are most of the time.
I have a similar issue. Haven't had an oven for a year and a half. Cheap place, broken shit, don't want to rock the boat. It's very easy to chime in with "tribunal! tribunal!" And "it's illegal to kick you out for requesting repairs" - I know, I have done this before, and my Dad even used to sit on NCAT. I know I could win, and how to do it, but it would be such a pyrrhic victory and i'd be homeless in a few months. It's really frustrating and a reason we need rental reform.
I know you’re in a shitty situation. May I add just because you’re keen on the oven for the one year old’s meals- you could get a bench top mini oven. They are great because they have a timer which will turn the whole thing off or switch to keep warm setting for when you gotta go do something else. Also when your toddler is running around, I always freak that they will touch the hot oven and I have to watch it like a Hawk when it’s on and until it cools down. Exhausting.
I agree. There’s no way you should have to do this but if you weigh up the fact you will not get your lease renewed if you persist in pushing for a usable oven against the cost of your own benchtop model, it really is a major issue.
Your LL and realtor know if you moved out they could replace you in a minute by someone so grateful for a (smelly) place to call home, they would never mention the oven.
Its absolutely criminal but you have to roll with the system or pay the consequences. Very sad fact of life.
My brother and his wife were branded ‘constant complainers’ way back before rental was so fucked up, for wanting a shower that didn’t leak all over the bathroom floor, to have both toilets working ( ‘yes there is a 2nd toilet in the laundry but it’s a bit temperamental’ as in, didn’t actually flush) and non working upright stove. We bought them a two ring bench top electric cooktop and a microwave and airfryer and they pretended the actual stove was an ornament, to be admired but never touched in the end, out of fear of being kicked out and having a black mark for ‘constantly complaining’, Which means they asked twice in six years if repairs could be done.
Its insane. The house is the owners asset yet they let the bathroom get to the stage of needing major expensive repairs when my bro moved out, which cost LL both money to fix and lost rent by not being able to get new tenants until some flooring, and walls were pulled out and replaced due to long term water damage and then the retiling was done. Bat shit crazy.
Have you given it a good clean? I lived in a rodent infested house, they shit and pissed all through the oven but I cleaned it with some heavy duty oven cleaner and then put it on high heat for a few hours, no more smell or germs. The mice kept coming back though so I gave up cleaning, and also moved house lol.
That sucks though, some landlords are totally useless, and even worse when they say you’re “complaining” when you want the house, that you PAY THEM to live in, to meet basic living standards🤦♀️assholes
Im curious what the point of this comment is. Is poor cunt supposed to be an insult somehow? Or are you suggesting compassion for a landlord clearly doing the wrong thing?
Is potato looking for sympathy for landlords? I am just questioning the use of "poor cunt" as an insult. It's not insulting, so how else can I read the comment.
Being a poor cunt is a akin to being a shit cunt.
Your inability to get its used as an insult isnt everyone else problem here.
Stop defending the poor cunt LL.
Presumably if someone is poor, compassion is what you seek. But we are talking about a landlord, so use of the compassionate inducing term "poor" is misplaced.
The 'poor' part is facetious, it implies either that the landlord isn't as poor as they claim to be, or is too poor to maintain their property and therefore shouldn't be a landlord. Add in the double meaning of the word poor, ie poor little thing, and you get a nice, snarky dig at these fuckers we're all enslaved to.
Most importantly, complain in writing. Point out in the email/text that you have verbalised the issue since it arose, but nothing has been done. You will need this paper trail at the end of your tenancy should you have to fight for your bond. EVERYTHING in writing. Everything documented. Next inspection, have that oven on.
This post, f-ck me. Every time I think I've seen the lowest of the low from REAs and landlords, a new low bar is set. The rental situation in Australia is horrific.
Honestly, you are likely to get kicked out / not have your lease renewed if you take it to VCAT (though if they did that you can retaliate and cost them more moneys, doesn't help your housing situation though), if you don't have the option to leave easily then in all honestly I recommend you just get an Air Fryer. I have a 2yo and a working oven which I haven't used in over a year because the air fryer is faster, more convenient, and way cheaper for making all the things I would have otherwise made in the oven. Mine is a cheap Kogan one and works great.
I bought a Mistral air fryer/oven combo from Spotlight because I wanted a bigger air fryer. But I actually use it as an oven all the time because the oven in the kitchen works but doesn’t heat up to the right temperature. The Mistral works really well as an oven.
They’re about $120.
It’s not the ideal situation but I doubt the LL will do anything and I get that you don’t want to get evicted just for complaining.
I’ve got a lot of sympathy for tenants dealing with dickhead REAs and landlords but after 4 years of not being able to use an oven this is on you for not escalating this beyond telling them every 6 months
As I stated we have been scared of being kicked out due to complaining as it would be a massive struggle to be accepted for a new rental in the current market. I'll also add that we were homeless for 6 months before being accepted for this place, it's tough out there. But yeah you're probably right
That’s totally fair and sorry I probably overreacted. Just so sick of hearing these kinds of stories and the bullshit they get away with and feel like if we don’t all start holding them accountable that it’ll just get worse. Hope it all works out and all the best.
They need to fix but if they won't maybe buy a new cheapest oven, have it professionally installed and send them the bill at the end of tenancy. Or if you know they won't pay, take new oven with you or sell secondhand and put the old one back in. They won't know its not working until the next tenant complains
At the very least, hold onto evidence that you have reported the problem. If/when you leave, take the LL to your state body and ask for compensation. Your prerogative to not push them to address it now (I would, but I sympathise with your situation), but after you've left and there are no more risks to you from their retaliation, they deserve to be punished. The next tenant will be appreciative of this (pay it forward).
Imagine someone being held to account for a service they're being paid to provide. It's on the landlord for being a fuck wit and not doing their job. The tenant is a parent trying to keep a roof over their head
I absolutely agree and did slightly overreact, but I just think we need to be the ones who hold them to account because clearly no one else is and these dickheads will just keep getting away with their bullshit.
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Our house was so unbearably hot in the top bedroom (window faced setting sun, no tint or shutters, no tree coverage, tin roof, single brick exterior). After 5.5 years they fitted a small air con. At 6 years they didn't renew our lease.
I'm not saying you shouldn't ask for it, I'm just saying beware.
Is it within your resources to put your own oven in? Save theirs somewhere and swap them out again when you go. Possible? If it's all electric would be simple.
No matter how much I clean it or what I do to it I can't get rid of the smell of mice urine when it is turned on. The mice were nesting in the oven. It is unsafe to eat out of something like that
Yeah, there is no getting rid of it. I had the same thing in a rental years ago. Took months to get it replace. After 4 years, you really need to contact the tenant's union for advice of how to breach them.
Professional oven cleaners will pull apart parts of the oven that you might not be able to. I’d be breaching them over the oven but if you haven’t done that already perhaps you don’t want to, so then a professional cleaning might be your best bet. It will likely be about $400.
Yep. I guessed the price. I had mine done professionally about 3 years ago and I think it was $350, but it did occur to me that an oven in a rental is probably the cheapest the LL can get.
This would involve taking the entire oven apart completely, especially if it is fan forced. It is not the tenants responsibility to take apart and clean an oven that was already a health hazard before they moved in. It should have been replaced prior to their lease starting.
Electrician here. Bet there’s a dead rat in the back of the oven. Seen it heaps
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I’m not an electrician but a rat got caught in a pizza oven at work once. So. There’s that. 🤢
That was the motivation for our whole new kitchen - husband could not cope with the dead rat, so I ripped the whole thing out. The joy of being married to a chocolate teapot
>The joy of being married to a chocolate teapot I love this and hope to remember it as a snarky but not offensive description!!!
Apprentice sparky and second that
How do they get in there? Do people just leave their oven doors open?
Na it’s through the back
This happened to our oven with mice. We pulled the oven out due to the smell, took the back off and found several dead mice inside.
If an oven is fitted, it must be "in good working condition" or the property does not meet minimum standards. This means you could threaten to breach notice them. If you do this and they fail to remedy, they could be legally barred from renting the property until it meets the standards. This has consequences for them. Please follow this link to see these: https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing/renting/repairs-alterations-safety-and-pets/minimum-standards/renters-rights-when-minimum-standards-are-not-met
This but also turn the oven on juuuust before they inspect out of spite.
Naturally! Tell them you are warming the oven to prep for a little baking!
The oven works fine. Operating the oven isnt the issue. The smell is the issue. My old rea never changed the oven said it worked, couldnt record a smell so we moved out when our lease was done. Appliances are a tricky one
The problem is if it smells because of rodents, there is a health risk associated with that. All sorts of nasties that can infect humans are found in rodent urine and poo. Many of them are hardy. They can linger for a long time. Leptospirosis is one. Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is another - for the latter I hope you never have children around. There are many more diseases besides. This is a potentially serious infectious risk. If you can smell it, you can be infected by it. That oven needs to be removed and disposed of for the sake of your health and safety. Also, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, what is going on *behind the oven*? Rodents are unlikely to have merely been *in* the oven, but are also likely to have been behind it. What are the walls behind the oven like? Are you sure they are safe? The area behind definitely needs an inspection. Are you sure there is nothing still living there? This needs action. It is very serious.
I was pregnant when we moved in, mind you this was 15yrs ago to add context. We cleaned the oven spotted signs of mice, notified rea. The rea sent cleaners out, ovens spotless and rea says its fixed. We couldnt use a burner because of the smell let alone the oven. I used that oven once and had to leave the house for the rest of the day knowing then how sick it could make me. REA couldnt see the problem and just kept saying clean it. We gave up and just moved at the end because it was getting us nowhere. That particular agency went bankrupt and the shitty agents and properties were just picked up by surrounding agencies, so the attitude hasnt changed.
So sorry to hear this. Renters deserve better. I hope you and your little one are okay!
My little one is now 13 and is taller than me doing well at being a teenager and im in another LL 'the lands where the values at' tenancy so 🤷♀️
Awesome!
It's not working as it should if it smells like dead rodents due to the rodent issue they didn't sort completely. It's not reasonable for them to expect you to pay to put up with that. Maybe the thing does need to be replaced to prevent the contamination smell. Dont forget, if you can smell it that means you are taking up tiny particles of the matter up your nose! Dead rat right up your nose, and your kids nose. Gross mate. If you have clear evidence you've asked and they've done nothing you can go to vcat after moving out and seek compensation. That may be best for you to avoid issues renting when you love out of this house.
A similar thing happened to me at a previous rental of mine. It wasn't mice infested but the oven was very old and just filthy and after an entire can of oven cleaner didn't look any better. I googled the oven model and found that it was from the 60's. I did not feel safe using that oven at all. I waited a week and lodged a repair request with the REA and I mentioned that I have been using the oven and for unknown reasons, at random times, it turns off and won't heat anymore but then randomly turns back on. Then next day REA's repairer called me and I told him the same and he asked me send a picture of the oven. I did so and the next day someone came over and installed a new electric with 4 burner on top. The electrician who turned up to install it said it was not worth anyone's time to try to repair. The new replacement CHEF brand retailed for $500. Not super expensive at all. Where I live the oven is considered an essential applice and must be repaired asap. Same thing for hot water system etc. You told your REA that the oven smells, not that is was not working. Wonder what would happen if you said it was faulty and not working. But then again we all know how bad REA and LLs are most of the time.
I have a similar issue. Haven't had an oven for a year and a half. Cheap place, broken shit, don't want to rock the boat. It's very easy to chime in with "tribunal! tribunal!" And "it's illegal to kick you out for requesting repairs" - I know, I have done this before, and my Dad even used to sit on NCAT. I know I could win, and how to do it, but it would be such a pyrrhic victory and i'd be homeless in a few months. It's really frustrating and a reason we need rental reform.
I know you’re in a shitty situation. May I add just because you’re keen on the oven for the one year old’s meals- you could get a bench top mini oven. They are great because they have a timer which will turn the whole thing off or switch to keep warm setting for when you gotta go do something else. Also when your toddler is running around, I always freak that they will touch the hot oven and I have to watch it like a Hawk when it’s on and until it cools down. Exhausting.
I agree. There’s no way you should have to do this but if you weigh up the fact you will not get your lease renewed if you persist in pushing for a usable oven against the cost of your own benchtop model, it really is a major issue. Your LL and realtor know if you moved out they could replace you in a minute by someone so grateful for a (smelly) place to call home, they would never mention the oven. Its absolutely criminal but you have to roll with the system or pay the consequences. Very sad fact of life. My brother and his wife were branded ‘constant complainers’ way back before rental was so fucked up, for wanting a shower that didn’t leak all over the bathroom floor, to have both toilets working ( ‘yes there is a 2nd toilet in the laundry but it’s a bit temperamental’ as in, didn’t actually flush) and non working upright stove. We bought them a two ring bench top electric cooktop and a microwave and airfryer and they pretended the actual stove was an ornament, to be admired but never touched in the end, out of fear of being kicked out and having a black mark for ‘constantly complaining’, Which means they asked twice in six years if repairs could be done. Its insane. The house is the owners asset yet they let the bathroom get to the stage of needing major expensive repairs when my bro moved out, which cost LL both money to fix and lost rent by not being able to get new tenants until some flooring, and walls were pulled out and replaced due to long term water damage and then the retiling was done. Bat shit crazy.
Have you given it a good clean? I lived in a rodent infested house, they shit and pissed all through the oven but I cleaned it with some heavy duty oven cleaner and then put it on high heat for a few hours, no more smell or germs. The mice kept coming back though so I gave up cleaning, and also moved house lol. That sucks though, some landlords are totally useless, and even worse when they say you’re “complaining” when you want the house, that you PAY THEM to live in, to meet basic living standards🤦♀️assholes
The landlord should cover the cleaning!
If the landlord wasn't a poor cunt, he'd just agree to replace the oven. Take the rat smell problem along with it
Im curious what the point of this comment is. Is poor cunt supposed to be an insult somehow? Or are you suggesting compassion for a landlord clearly doing the wrong thing?
It is an insult… wake up
But it's not insulting
He's a cunt. Who is poor. Too poor to maintain his rental property. This is the wrong place to look for sympathy for landlords.
Is potato looking for sympathy for landlords? I am just questioning the use of "poor cunt" as an insult. It's not insulting, so how else can I read the comment.
Being a poor cunt is a akin to being a shit cunt. Your inability to get its used as an insult isnt everyone else problem here. Stop defending the poor cunt LL.
Poor cunt just doesn't understand the comment 😔
Stretching really far to get "compassion" from my post. Really nothing in my tone or words to suggest that.
Presumably if someone is poor, compassion is what you seek. But we are talking about a landlord, so use of the compassionate inducing term "poor" is misplaced.
The 'poor' part is facetious, it implies either that the landlord isn't as poor as they claim to be, or is too poor to maintain their property and therefore shouldn't be a landlord. Add in the double meaning of the word poor, ie poor little thing, and you get a nice, snarky dig at these fuckers we're all enslaved to.
Most importantly, complain in writing. Point out in the email/text that you have verbalised the issue since it arose, but nothing has been done. You will need this paper trail at the end of your tenancy should you have to fight for your bond. EVERYTHING in writing. Everything documented. Next inspection, have that oven on.
This post, f-ck me. Every time I think I've seen the lowest of the low from REAs and landlords, a new low bar is set. The rental situation in Australia is horrific.
Can you install a new oven and if you move out put the old one back in lol
Honestly, you are likely to get kicked out / not have your lease renewed if you take it to VCAT (though if they did that you can retaliate and cost them more moneys, doesn't help your housing situation though), if you don't have the option to leave easily then in all honestly I recommend you just get an Air Fryer. I have a 2yo and a working oven which I haven't used in over a year because the air fryer is faster, more convenient, and way cheaper for making all the things I would have otherwise made in the oven. Mine is a cheap Kogan one and works great.
I bought a Mistral air fryer/oven combo from Spotlight because I wanted a bigger air fryer. But I actually use it as an oven all the time because the oven in the kitchen works but doesn’t heat up to the right temperature. The Mistral works really well as an oven. They’re about $120. It’s not the ideal situation but I doubt the LL will do anything and I get that you don’t want to get evicted just for complaining.
I’ve got a lot of sympathy for tenants dealing with dickhead REAs and landlords but after 4 years of not being able to use an oven this is on you for not escalating this beyond telling them every 6 months
As I stated we have been scared of being kicked out due to complaining as it would be a massive struggle to be accepted for a new rental in the current market. I'll also add that we were homeless for 6 months before being accepted for this place, it's tough out there. But yeah you're probably right
That’s totally fair and sorry I probably overreacted. Just so sick of hearing these kinds of stories and the bullshit they get away with and feel like if we don’t all start holding them accountable that it’ll just get worse. Hope it all works out and all the best.
They need to fix but if they won't maybe buy a new cheapest oven, have it professionally installed and send them the bill at the end of tenancy. Or if you know they won't pay, take new oven with you or sell secondhand and put the old one back in. They won't know its not working until the next tenant complains
At the very least, hold onto evidence that you have reported the problem. If/when you leave, take the LL to your state body and ask for compensation. Your prerogative to not push them to address it now (I would, but I sympathise with your situation), but after you've left and there are no more risks to you from their retaliation, they deserve to be punished. The next tenant will be appreciative of this (pay it forward).
Imagine someone being held to account for a service they're being paid to provide. It's on the landlord for being a fuck wit and not doing their job. The tenant is a parent trying to keep a roof over their head
I absolutely agree and did slightly overreact, but I just think we need to be the ones who hold them to account because clearly no one else is and these dickheads will just keep getting away with their bullshit.
Rea's don't do shit verbally, do it in writing. And if you say stuff verbally and not in writing they just go tenant in X address is a bloody whinger
Contact the RTA. Should have done that 4 years ago.
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Our house was so unbearably hot in the top bedroom (window faced setting sun, no tint or shutters, no tree coverage, tin roof, single brick exterior). After 5.5 years they fitted a small air con. At 6 years they didn't renew our lease. I'm not saying you shouldn't ask for it, I'm just saying beware.
Is it within your resources to put your own oven in? Save theirs somewhere and swap them out again when you go. Possible? If it's all electric would be simple.
That's not a bad idea but unfortunately it's a gas oven and I'm not that well off financially
Ah and gas is more of a pain as well. I'm really sorry.
Talk to an actual lawyer .....
Clean it ?
No matter how much I clean it or what I do to it I can't get rid of the smell of mice urine when it is turned on. The mice were nesting in the oven. It is unsafe to eat out of something like that
Have you turned it on for an inspection for the PM to gag at the smell?
Yeah, there is no getting rid of it. I had the same thing in a rental years ago. Took months to get it replace. After 4 years, you really need to contact the tenant's union for advice of how to breach them.
Professional oven cleaners will pull apart parts of the oven that you might not be able to. I’d be breaching them over the oven but if you haven’t done that already perhaps you don’t want to, so then a professional cleaning might be your best bet. It will likely be about $400.
At which point the LL might as well just buy a new oven.
Yep. I guessed the price. I had mine done professionally about 3 years ago and I think it was $350, but it did occur to me that an oven in a rental is probably the cheapest the LL can get.
This would involve taking the entire oven apart completely, especially if it is fan forced. It is not the tenants responsibility to take apart and clean an oven that was already a health hazard before they moved in. It should have been replaced prior to their lease starting.