Just moved to California starting look for an apartment. much to my dismay 9/10 apartments I viewed do not include refrigerators in the lease. I'm from Detroit - where every single apartment I viewed had a fridge included. The first apartment I went to I was like - WHAT? NO FRIDGE????
In California, a refrigerator is not a habitable condition. It's an amenity. I found out via r/personalfinance that in Texas - an air conditioning unit is a habitable condition - meaning the landlord must provide and repair it. In fact, when your A/C unit breaks (and its not tenants' fault), you might not owe rent for days its broken because the unit is only livable while the A/C is working per Texas law.
There are several reasons state law should change to make a fridge a habitable condition.
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I believe every other state requires this as a habitable condition, correct me if I'm wrong. In my personal opinion an apartment without a fridge in not habitable, wouldn't you agree? but more importantly....
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There's a lot of illegal bait-and-switch going on in the apartment rental market. I'm shopping for an apartment now and I would say about half the listings that say "fridge included" are just outright lies. I caught a landlord in this lie just yesterday. He said "oh well I must have made a mistake online..." This also happens with dishwashers and with rent prices. You're not fooling any damn body, you listed imaginary apartment with fake pictures, just to get people to show up so you can start throwing sales shit at them. Sometimes, in areas where the market is really hot (such as West Hollywood), people sign for apartments without having seen the inside first (because the unit is already leased by the time previous tenants move out). Making a fridge an optional amenity gives landlords the ability to LIE and say the unit comes with a fridge and then when they move in, they find out that the fridge belonged to the previous tenants. You might say "well they should read the lease before they sign" but that logic only holds up in theory. In reality you know there are people getting screwed over on this issue. Such as people from other states who it never occurred to them that a fridge might not be included.
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California law should mimc Texas law When a habitable condition appliance breaks, the landlord is losing rent money every day it sits broken. In Michigan, when a unit is unlivable, a tenant can break a lease with no penalty and no notice. That gives them very strong incentive to hurry up and fix it already. If Texas does this with air conditioners, why cant California do this with a damn refrigerator?
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Submitted August 26, 2015 at 03:11AM by billingsley http://ift.tt/1hZQ1rR changemyview
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