My fridge gave up the ghost right after the holidays

The old Kenmore in my apartment just stopped making cold air about three weeks ago. I had to throw out maybe $80 worth of food, which felt awful. Instead of calling my landlord right away, I checked the local appliance repair shop and they quoted me $300 minimum just to look at it. I remembered my lease says the landlord handles major appliances, so I sent a polite but firm email with the repair quote attached. He had a new basic model installed within five days, and it didn't cost me a dime out of pocket. Anyone else had to push back on a landlord to get something fixed that was clearly their job?

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3 Comments

felix4886mo ago

Wait, why is it always the landlord's job though? You said yourself you didn't call them first, you went and got a quote. What if the problem was just a clogged filter or a loose wire you could have fixed? Sometimes tenants jump straight to demanding a whole new appliance when a simple fix would do, and that cost gets passed on to all of us in higher rent later. Maybe the landlord would have preferred to send their own repair person to check it out first for less money.

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patricia_wright6mo ago

Okay but "that cost gets passed on to all of us" is a wild thing to say. Landlords raise rent because they can, not because a tenant asked for a working appliance one time. If the furnace is old and broken, that's on the owner to fix or replace, full stop. Tenants shouldn't have to play repair person for a place they don't own, and waiting for a landlord's guy can mean days without heat.

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wrenh795mo ago

Exactly, landlords just raise rent anyway.

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