My refrigerator just broke down overnight. We had quite a bit of food ruined, and I was wondering if landlords ever reimburse tenants for this kind of thing. There were no signs of the fridge breaking prior to this, and no requests from us to take a look at it, so I’m guessing no. But I was just curious about other people’s experiences.
Almost certainly not. This varies a lot from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. But most landlords are only responsible for keeping the rental unit habitable. OTOH, if you a renting an apartment with a refrigerator, you have a right to have one that works. So the landlord probably has to repair or replace the refrigerator. But you have no legal right to damages for the refrigerator’s failure. If you have renter’s insurance, check out your policy, it may cover your loss.
I have never seen a landlord refuse to repair an appliance; or wait, that’s not true, I did see that once. But I threatened to sue, and he backed down. He did not pay for the damage caused by the appliance, however.
Here is a good link about the landlord’s repair obligations
and see
http://apartments.uchicago.edu/troubleshooting/rent.html
Hope this was helpful.
Note: the usual disclaimers apply. Talk to a lawyer in your jurisdiction for specific legal advice. Really.
In order for your landlord to be responsible for your spoiled chow, he would have to have had some reason to expect a problem. Given that the fridge died suddenly, and that you mentioned no issues prior to its demise, he can not have taken action to prevent the disaster.
You were in a better position to prevent the spoilage as you live with the appliance and would know sooner than the LL when there was a problem–how responsible do YOU feel about the loss? Your LL is even less so.
The world is an imperfect place, stuff breaks. Be happy the LL is not looking at you to fix the property he has entrusted to you.