Appliance repair responsibility
Question from Ned updated on 13th July 2020:
My tenant's refrigerator needs to be repaired. In our lease agreement I was able to get the tenant to sign off on paying for repair/replacement of all appliances in the house. Is this legally sound to impose this on the tenant?
Our expert Bernard Parker responded:
Generally, a landlord is responsible for repair of any appliance supplied in a property at the start of a tenancy. Sometimes it’s acceptable to say that an appliance is old and will be left for a tenant’s use only as long as it works. In these cases if the appliance breaks down it won’t be repaired or replaced.
However, it is not legally sound to require that a tenant repair or replace an appliance which belongs to a landlord. It is the landlord’s appliance and, in the normal course of events, a tenant cannot be required to maintain it. Requiring a tenant to be responsible for maintaining all appliances in the house is definitely unacceptable.
Bernard is principal of Quinovic – Kapiti-Mana. Quinovic's outstanding people and systems provide the most professional, effective and reliable residential property management service in the NZ market for over 30 years.Search the Ask an Expert archive
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