With every rental property, landlords must think about maintaining each part of the property, from the walls and windows to the electrical and plumbing systems. One significant area that landlords deal with is the property's appliances.
Many landlords struggle with the ins and outs of appliances. This appliance guide for landlords can help streamline your efforts in approaching and dealing with appliances, from start to finish.
What Exactly Are Appliances?
Appliances are generally considered to be an individual piece of equipment for use in the home in the performance of domestic chores. By this definition, a dishwasher, refrigerator or stove would be considered appliances, but a water heater, garbage disposal or a toilet would not.
In most rentals, the landlord often provides some or all of the following appliances:
- Refrigerator
- Stove/oven
- Dishwasher
- Clothes washer
- Clothes dryer
- Microwave
It's not uncommon for landlords to list the appliances that come with the rental property and what is not. In fact, a discussion about appliances is one of the top things applicants want to know about when inquiring about a rental property.
Must Landlords Provide Appliances?
There is no law requiring landlords to provide appliances in a rental unit, and most states don't consider an absence of appliances to violate the habitability requirements that landlords must meet. In other words, a rental property must have working electrical, heat and plumbing systems, but there doesn't necessarily have to be any appliances hooked up to those systems.
However it is rare for a rental property nowadays to not provide any appliances. Appliances such as cooling and heating as well as dishwashers are highly desirable for renters. In properties that may not have space for a clothesline, dryers are required to ensure a drying facility has been provided. In order to stay competitive, many landlords specifically mention provided appliances when marketing their rental property's, particularly in the seasons.
Are landlords required to fix appliances?
Because there is so much gray area on who is responsible, it opens the door to a lot of confusion, miscommunication and bad feelings. As a landlord, you'll be much happier if you can head off conflict before it even starts by clear communication and a solid lease agreement.
While this is a consideration, you need to be mindful that if the appliance or item was present and working at the start of the tenancy it must be maintained or an agreement reached with the tenant to compensate them for the loss of the item. Owning a property is no different to a car… it must be maintained.
It goes without saying that if the tenant is supplying their own appliances, they are completely responsible for repairs, plus any damage that their appliance might cause to the unit, like water damage from a leaking washer.