Fridge/Freezer in rented accomodation

jamesb1239

Hi,
A quick (hopefully) question for those knowledgeable in renting etc.

I am a tenant and have been for the last 3 years in the same property (don't think that is relevant) the house is fully furnished and as part of that it comes with a fridge freezer. Last night I was awoken by a bleeping noise and when I went to investigate it was coming from the fridge freezer.
I opened the freezer and everything was frozen, but everything in the fridge was warm. I text the landlord (always been effective and I know about the sending letters recorded delivery etc) to tell him about this as we need a fridge as we have a young child and soon to be a baby.
He said that he would contact his friend in the morning who is a refridgeration engineer and see what he suggested.
This morning I was advised that I needed to defrost the freezer to see if the damper? was blocked. The freezer was full, but as the need for a fridge is quite high we decided that we would need to throw out the food and do as told and let it defrost.

Anyway I sidetracked a little there giving the background! In my tenancy agreement I have found the following clauses;

****************************8
4.2.1: Keep the property including all of the Landlord's machinery and equipment
clean and tidy and in good and tenable condition. repair and decorative
order (with Landlords pennission). Reasonable wear and tear, items which the
Landlord is responsible- to maintain. and damage for which the Landlord has
Agreed to insure.

4.4.7: Have the use of all appliances provided in the property, as laid out in the
inventory save those which are noted as not working. However. should any
items require repair. or be beyond repair. the Landlord does not undertake
to pay for any costs of repair or to replace the appiance. except those
which the Landlord is required by law to maintain.

(b) to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwellinghouse
for the supply of water, gas. and electricity and the sanitation
(including basins, sinks bath and sanitary conveniences. but not other fixtures
fittings and appliances for making use of the supply of water. gas and
electricity).
*****************

Does this mean that it is on us to repair his appliances that are listed on the inventory?

Thanks in advance

Brb

I don't know legally who is responsible for a fridge freezer but as your need for a fridge is paramount here I can suggest joining freecycle and requesting one to hopefully keep you going until it's all sorted.

BitterAndTwisted

Strictly, it means that the LL is attempting to take no responsibility for repairing or replacing appliances, other than things like the heating-boiler. In practice, if they value you as good tenants they might. They've already shown willing by arranging an engineer. or rather saying that they will. If it can't be repaired and the LL won't replace I expect you could acquire one via Freecycle if buying one yourselves is a budget-breaker.

Depending on when this engineer is going to call. it might not be necessary to discard everything in the freezer immediately. Have you wrapped everything up in newspaper or any other insulating material?

clutton_2

what in today's saharan temperatures ????

jamesb1239

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Strictly, it means that the LL is attempting to take no responsibility for repairing or replacing appliances, other than things like the heating-boiler. In practice, if they value you as good tenants they might. They've already shown willing by arranging an engineer. or rather saying that they will. If it can't be repaired and the LL won't replace I expect you could acquire one via Freecycle if buying one yourselves is a budget-breaker.

Depending on when this engineer is going to call. it might not be necessary to discard everything in the freezer immediately. Have you wrapped everything up in newspaper or any other insulating material?

Thanks for your replies, BitterAndTwisted I may have come across wrong, the landlord had called his 'friend' who is an engineer who has told him that he will not come out until we have tried de-frosting the fridge/freezer by taking everything out and leaving it unplugged with the doors open for a day or so. Only then will he attend and look at it. We have already put an ad on freecycle but people requesting fridges or fridge/freezers is an almost daily occurance on our local one so I dont hold much hope out for that.

I know what the landlord's problem is, he doesnt like paying out and only likes it when it all goes problem free, we have been here 3 years and had no problems for the first 2, and then in this last year the kitchen roof began to leak which he had to get roofers out to fix (took him about 2 weeks) and the bedroom ceiling started pouring with water as the central heating header tank was overflowing (took a few weeks for him to sort that to rendering the bedroom useless) his solution to that was to repair the overflow pipe as it had come off the tank, which then froze so it all happened again, and then on his second attempt to repair he left the overflow running into the wall cavity and has caused severe damp and staining! (finally fixed now though apart from the damp)

So as you can see he has had to pay out quite a bit this year, but isnt that all part of being a landlord?

Thanks again for your advice and allowing me to rant a little , wouldnt be too bad if for the last 3 days we hadnt had temps of 21,22,23 degrees

Wee_Willy_Harris

Question. What would you do if it was your fridge freezer? Just bin it and get another? Or follow the engineers advice?

jamesb1239

First of all I have not spoken to the engineer myself and just have the landlords word that is what he said, and personally if I had called an engineer out then I would expect to be paying him and for him to come out as soon as possible and repair it or at least look at it and advise that it needs to defrost for a while, even though it is a frost free freezer.

Unfortunately though the landlord has clearly stated that nobody will come until this has been tried and he has no idea if it will work or be a temporary fix (so we may go through this all over again)

Also if it was my fridge/freezer then I would call an engineer and ask his call out fees and what is a ballpark figure for this kind of thing (if he had an idea what was wrong) and I would then decide whether repairing would be viable and if not then yes I would go and purchase another one. Unfortunately though I have no space to store the landlords one in order for me to purchase another, nor do i intend to throw this one out and replace it only to have to leave it when we move out.

Wee_Willy_Harris

So, in short, you would seek the advice of an engineer, much as the LL has done. Fridge Freezers are simple devices. Basically a pump with a thermostat. Only 3 things to go wrong, the pump, what it pumps, and the thermostat. It isn't unusual, however, for the action of freezing to create a blockage. I'm sure you would agree that it's worth a try rather than incurring expensive call-out charges or the cost of replacement.

terryw

I agree with the OP that the current heatwave is the wrong time to have a fridge problem, but the advice of the engineer would appear to be quite sensible. Like most people, I defrost my fridge every few months and it does not really cause me any particular problems - in fact it gives me a chance to get rid of the old stuff that will never get used anyway.

G_M

Your contract appears to effectively mirror the LL's obligations under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985:
(the lessor [landlord] should)....
"keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for the supply of water, gas and electricity and for sanitation (including basins, sinks, baths and sanitary conveniences, but not other fixtures, fittings and appliances for making use of the supply of water, gas or electricity), "

So legally no, he does NOT need to repair it.

However, he has taken expert advice which recommends trying defrosting as a first step. Seems reasonable.

Buy a large freezer bag and freezer blocks and transfer all the contents into it. Your food will remain frozen long enough to defrost/clean the freezer.

If this does not work, call the LL again. He may well then go to step 2 namely either getting his engineer in to repair it, or perhaps even buying a new one. That's what I would do in the interest of keeping my tenant happy and my property in good order.

But not trying his engineer's suggestion first just makes you out to be difficult in which case he might just tell you to fix it yourself!

zzzLazyDaisy

I had a similar problem with my fridge freezer some time ago. In fact I was going to replace it, but was advised to defrost it thoroughly and then try again.

That was two years ago and it is still working fine.

So it is definitely worth a try.