So, I helped my son move today…and the thought of having to move a washer and dryer up those narrow stairs and around that sharp corner made me appreciate the small price he has to pay to rent the units already in the apartment. Thanks for the advice and info.
Ye, it matters whether water and other utilities are included in the rent. My son once rented a room and the rent included utilities - but he had to pay an extra fee in the summer if he wanted to put his own air conditioner in the window.*
I agree that it’s probably broken out in the lease to provide flexibility of some sort - possibly so the landlord doesn’t have to replace them if they break, or so there’s a set price if they are out of service for a month rather than arguing at that point how much should come off the rent , or maybe even because some apartments in this building don’t have the washer/dryer, and breaking out the fee allows them to charge $X rent for a Y bedroom apartment with a $50 extra charge for those with a W/D.
- Each occupant rented individually from the landlord - so utilities had to be included in the rent. And most apartments in small (2-8 units) here don’t have central air, so it’s either put an AC in the window or don’t have AC.
Yeah I’ve moved a lot of washers up and down stairs in my lifetime and I don’t plan to ever do so again.
Is there a clause that the W/D fee could go up? For example, my apartment building has the monthly rent and then a mandatory fee for utilities which covers cable, internet, TiVo, landline, gas, water, trash and recycling. That can be raised anytime should there be a massive hike. It’s only $85.
And yes, several people I know get the landline for working from home, even pre Covid.
My granddaughter and her husband ran into this the last time they moved, only the charge was $75 a month. I had a good working washer they could use and they said they would buy a dryer. The owner of the place they rented decided it wasn’t worth the effort to remove the existing appliances so they get to use them at no charge.
$50 a month to do laundry seems like a lot unless it’s a family living in the apartment. I average about 3 loads of laundry a month, and it definitely wouldn’t cost me anything close to $17 a load at the laundromat. It wouldn’t cost me $10 to do each of the five loads a month I was doing when I did Dad’s laundry too. I wonder what the break even point would be for me, 2 or 3 small children worth of laundry, probably.
There is also the opportunity cost of driving to the laundromat and waiting around while the machines run, rather than just doing it at home at your convenience.
This is especially the case if the people living in the apartment keep odd hours. There are not many 24 hour laundromats around anymore.
Yeah, it’s similar to paying $$ for food delivery to save the time and effort of driving to pick it up. Even if the apartment had a free, on-site laundrymat, I might still consider the $50/mo worth it to have my own set so I didn’t have to lug my laundry around.
It’s not priced to be a deal for the renter, it’s priced to cover the landlord’s potential costs. They’d be perfectly happy if no one took the appliances and they didn’t have to worry about floods and fires. The only deal for the renter is having a choice instead of paying that extra cost in the rent.