Quick rundown

1. Fridge starts leaking water out from around the water and ice dispenser on the freezer door. I cut the water off.
2. I leave the landlord an email and then also send her an email at 10:30 Thursday (Feb 4th) morning.
3. I also make her aware in the email that I still need a copy of the lease I signed since she just took over the leasing responsibilities (signed the first week in JANUARY and also I need our fireplace repaired which I told her about at the same time.)
4. I have not heard anything by Friday (Feb 5th) at 4:30 so I call her office and her secretary gets her on the phone. Landlord tells me she sent my info to a warranty company who will contact me about repairs (no, she never emailed me to tell me or call me).
5. Tuesday (Feb 9th) still nothing from the warranty company. I send an email that night requesting the email she forwarded to the company and the warranty company info so I can contact them directly.
6. Thursday Feb 11th - We magically get contacted by the warranty company - still no correspondence from landlord
7. Friday, Feb 12th - I get up and find water all over the floor; the fridge is not cooling anymore and the ice melted which is why the water is on the floor. All the food is ruined.

Do I have a leg to stand on to ask her to pay for fridge contents? I feel like it took her too long to take action. If I request it, I'm considering send the request by certified mail if she's never going to contact me. I live in Fayettenam if it matters...

[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 1:01 PM. Reason : oops...prob belongs in chit chat. Feel free to move mr. moderator...]

2/12/2010 1:00:25 PM

Somewhere in your lease it probably says that the owner is not responsible for damage to your items.

And how about calling someone if you want something done.

2/12/2010 1:08:03 PM

I did call her. She also spent an enormous amount of time when we went over the lease in January reiterating how much more she prefers email and how much more likely she is to receive it.

2/12/2010 1:09:56 PM

I don't think you have any right to hold the landlord responsible.

If you knew the fridge was failing, why didn't you relocate your food? I'm sure you have friends who have refrigerators that you could have stashed your food in temporarily until they fixed yours. If you don't, then this is a good reason to have friends.

2/12/2010 1:11:19 PM

Quote :

"And how about calling someone if you want something done."

It doesn't leave a paper trail.
And

Quote :

"Maintain in good and safe working order and promptly repair all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and other facilities and appliances supplied or required to be supplied by the landlord provided that notification of needed repairs is made to the landlord in writing by the tenant, except in emergency situations."

^Basically.
If your food matters enough to you to be asking about who is responsible for replacement, then it matters enough for you to have been proactive. Also, renter's insurance. Consider it. Whether it would have covered your food or not, maybe now you're cognizant of the fact that you're gonna have to act like an adult, which includes taking steps to protect your shit.

[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 1:16 PM. Reason : sdff]

2/12/2010 1:13:45 PM

Fair enough. I appreciate the honest answers. Looks like I'm going grocery shopping whenever they fix this thing.

2/12/2010 1:24:08 PM

Quote :

"renter's insurance"

It's dirt cheap, too. When I had it, it was like $100 a year.

2/12/2010 1:26:46 PM

Quote :

"I don't think you have any right to hold the landlord responsible. If you knew the fridge was failing, why didn't you relocate your food?..."

2/12/2010 1:27:27 PM

but with ^^ being said, I highly doubt renters insurance would cover the food loss.

Landlord is responsible for replacing the fridge, but not it's contents.

[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 1:30 PM. Reason : a]

2/12/2010 1:29:44 PM

Quote :

" It's dirt cheap, too. When I had it, it was like $100 a year. "

for $100 i got $8000 in coverage

2/12/2010 1:30:23 PM

yep. renting and not having renters insurance is pretty moronic if you ask me. a lot of appartment complexes/ landlords actually require it these days.

2/12/2010 1:31:58 PM

Ditto on the renters insurance. Cheap as fuck and well worth the cost.

2/12/2010 1:44:20 PM

I expressly deny the right of a tenant for damages, but all my leases have this under landlord responsibilites:

Landlord shall make all repairs to the premises as may be necessary to keep their condition habitable, and make such repairs in a time that is reasonable to the severity of the situation. It states that the landlord is to make repairs.

All my tenants have every number and email I have, and call me directly when there is a problem. I do my best to have someone out there within 24 hours.

2/12/2010 1:55:01 PM

I think if you went out and bought some coolers and ice and your food spoiled you can show that you were going to do something about it but ran out of time.

2/12/2010 3:37:33 PM

Quote :

"2. I leave the landlord an email and then also send her an email at 10:30 Thursday (Feb 4th) morning."

Did you print it out and leave it under their door or something?

2/12/2010 4:20:03 PM

mine just took what i lost in food off my rent, when i had fridge issues

[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 11:51 PM. Reason : sdfasd]

2/12/2010 11:51:05 PM

strictly speaking, all repair requests must be in writing in nc, unless it's an emergency

2/13/2010 12:34:00 AM

Renters insurance is da bomb for stuff like this.

But ya, it sounds like you did reasonably well to contact them and they fell through on fixing it. Might have a case for a suit but I doubt youll see anything for the food. Maybe for a conditional lost/unlivable spaces.

<troll>

Take all the food and shit, let it sit a week, then dump it off infront of their office

</troll>

2/13/2010 10:14:51 PM

Quote :

"Landlord responsible for refrigerator contents? "

no

2/13/2010 10:44:33 PM

Did the water mess up your food? A refrigerator can keep food overnight cold if no one opens it. It will actually hold its temperature for a long time. Did you even check to see what the temp was inside your food may not have been ruined.

We ate out of our fridge for days after hurricane fran and on the second or third day had a massive cookout in which the entire neighborhood pooled grills and cooked everything we had in our fridges and freezers. (Oh man it was delicious) no one died from eating the food, in fact everyone ate like a pig and it was good.

I think your failure to take action to salvage your food may actually be what wasted it. If you saw the ice melting in the morning on Thursday the 4th and did not take any action to save the food then you probably screwed yourself. One day you will be a homeowner and stuff will break, you have to be resourceful.

2/13/2010 11:26:45 PM

It sounds like the water was leaking and that was the initial cause of the problem; the melting ice was a second, later problem. There are two possible ways to look at that: (1) the landlord's failure to respond would not have affected your food, since they would have been looking at the water line rather than the cooling mechanism, and the second problem was independent of the first; (2) the landlord's failure to respond resulted in increased damage, which could have been prevented by timely examination of the appliance.

If you choose option 2, there's no harm in at least telling her "Listen, you took a week to look at this and never even got back to me. I've lost $X in food that was spoiled when my fridge stopped working. I feel that you should reimburse me for that, since I made the effort to get it fixed as soon as the problem occurred."

If you choose option 1, then you suck it up and go to Food Lion. And tell your landlord that there's something ELSE wrong for her to get fixed, and you look forward to being ignored for another week.

2/14/2010 10:03:17 AM

It actually depends on yours renters insurance as to weather food is covered or not. It was under my policy, something to call up your agent and ask them about

2/14/2010 9:22:07 PM

How much food was ruined? I mean, I know this sucks, but are we talking $200-$300 here or just $50?

2/14/2010 11:23:49 PM

^Probably more like $25 and $10 of that shit needed to be thrown out anyways.....

2/15/2010 2:39:27 PM

I wish I could get the power company to pay for ruined food for all the times the power has been out for a few days.

[Edited on February 15, 2010 at 7:16 PM. Reason : ]

2/15/2010 7:15:51 PM

i think it would be reasonable, if she did in fact not act in a reasonable amount of time to get it fixed. if the repairs people were the ones who took forever then it shouldn't be your landlord's fault.

2/15/2010 7:45:11 PM

The repair people are not the ones who took a long time, it was the landlord's fault for not reporting it to the repair and warranty company for about a week after I notified her (she lied and told me she forwarded the email earlier).

We are talking about roughly $200 in food.

I know that I will become an owner and have to deal with them, but as a homeowner I would have called the repair and warranty company the day the fridge was leaking water - far before the fridge stopped cooling.

The food was in fact ruined, the ice cream was totally melted, my frozen pizzas were mush, the milk smelled like arse, and my bag of green peppers looked like the green slime from Nickelodeon.

2/16/2010 10:07:36 AM

I should add that I am still without a fridge, due to the landlord not putting in the request until Thursday; the next time they could come was Monday since they are closed for the weekend.

Now I'm waiting for parts to come in. I have no idea when that will happen ugh

2/16/2010 10:09:50 AM

^sucks

Quote :

"the milk smelled like arse, and my bag of green peppers looked like the green slime from Nickelodeon."

To be fair, though, that shit is your own damn fault. You couldn't do much about freezer goods, except eat them/have friends over to eat them, but peppers and milk? We're not living in southern Florida, son, and for a while now, we've had temperatures that would have allowed you to store that kind of stuff outside.

Are you a student? If so, it's time for a visit to student legal services, to find out what the state considers "prompt":

Quote :

"Maintain in good and safe working order and promptly repair all electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and other facilities and appliances supplied or required to be supplied by the landlord provided that notification of needed repairs is made to the landlord in writing by the tenant, except in emergency situations."

http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-42.html

I think, though, that at this point, it's been so long that if you visit your landlord in person and remind her of her legal duties (i.e., show her you know your rights), she'll suddenly figure out a way to get a working fridge to you a lot faster. That, or you'll get even more proof that she's not someone you want as a landlord.

2/16/2010 10:30:22 AM

You're still out of luck on the food, but the fact that you still don't have a replacement fridge is an issue.

Take ^ advice

2/16/2010 10:56:36 AM

^

2/18/2010 1:59:18 PM