Renting is already a shitty enough process in its own right: you pay nearly all of your income for the privilege of living in a tiny cube in which you will have your legs broken if you even think about using Blu-tack, or murdered if you think about maybe one day owning a dog.
Thankfully, though, houses are super expensive and we’ll be stuck renting until we win the lottery or the ocean swallows the entirety of Australia. Wait, shit, I mean the opposite of thankfully. That sucks.
It gets even worse, somehow. Landlords are in a position of terrifying power – even with the notice they have to give you, moving is a huge fucking drag / occasionally impossible expense, and you end up having to just deal with their shitty behaviour for fear of not having your lease renewed.
This behaviour can be little things, like being slow to repair problems with the property, or it can be big things, like installing a coin machine on the toilet so you have to fork out a buck every time you want to piss.
Does this example seem insanely specific? That’s because it is. A Reddit user by the delightful name of Unlovablepig posted to r/Melbourne that they were a bit concerned about the legality of their landlord charging them to use the toilet which, well, fair enough, hey:
“I’m in Melbourne, Thornbury. I understand in our laundry having to pay for the communal washing machine.“But I pay the water bill that goes into my apartment. He said it was a government incentive to save water. But then why does he get to collect the money? I see nothing on google about this so I can’t work out if I’m being duped?”
Following comments from other Reddit users who said, in no uncertain terms, that that was absolutely bullshit, they came to the conclusion that maybe not everything was above board:
“I have spoken to my neighbour and she thinks I should call Today Tonight if the rental advice people tell me that it’s not right for my landlord to do this to me. I have looked at their website and you can write them an email with your issue. People like him need to be exposed.”
Because nearly everything interesting on the internet is completely fake (not from us, though, we’re good, trust), people responded with a healthy dose of scepticism, asking for a pic of the vile contraption at the very least, which Unlovablepig did indeed do:
While some were still unconvinced, if it is shopped, I applaud the amount of effort they put into convincing people in a relatively small subreddit that they had to pay to poop.
They’ve since posted an update that they’re getting legal help:
“With the help of others I have been using tips and also a lawyer has sent me her details to help me out with the legal side of things. So I’m glad I made this post. My friend is also coming over and he thinks we can remove the top cover without really damaging the landlord’s “property”. Then at least for now I can get to the flushing lever thingy.”
Godspeed.
Source and photo: Reddit.
