Posted on 04/05/2025 1:07:34 AM PDT by Angelino97
Tired of scouring Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for a decently used refrigerator because your new apartment didn’t come with one?
This headache could become a thing of the past with a new bill in the California Legislature that, if approved, would require landlords to provide refrigerators and stoves in their rentals.
Why are some rentals listed without a refrigerator?
The simple answer is landlords don’t have to provide a refrigerator.
Existing California law requires any building with a dwelling unit to maintain “certain characteristics in order to be tenantable,” which includes maintenance of adequate heating and hot water systems.
Even though cooking and storing food might seem like a necessity in order to live in any kind of housing situation, legally the appliances are categorized as amenities.
The number of Californians who have entered new leases without such luxuries is far greater than any other state, according to a Times analysis in 2022.
Research showed that Los Angeles and Orange counties “offered the fewest number of apartments with refrigerators among nearly two dozen large metropolitan areas nationwide.”...
What Assembly Bill 628 would do
When Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Hawthorne), whose 61st District covers communities from Inglewood to Marina del Rey, introduced Assembly Bill 628, she realized refrigerators and stoves were legally labeled as amenities. She decided to make it a necessity with the new bill.
The bill, if passed, would add a stove and refrigerator in good working condition and capable of safely generating heat for cooking and storing food, respectively, as a requirement of landlords starting Jan. 1, 2026.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I am tired of Calif.
[When I lived there in the 70s it was GREAT!]
I can assure you that some people don't care or are unaware of how to maintain cleanliness of a refrigerator or stove.
And if it's a rental unit it's even worse. And you can't tell who's going to treasure or trash your rental.
they use the refrigerator as a dumpster. They leave months old food in there, instead and of throwing it away after a few weeks. Dehydrated pizza, moldy Chinese food, fruit and veggies rotted, spills of all sorts and drips that have molded.
some units can't be sanitized.
The landlord is out several hundred dollars or the tenant loses their cleaning deposit and files a complaint with the BBB.
buy and trash your own fridges and stoves.
Why stop there? Why, I think all landlords should be required to supply jacuzzis and bocce ball courts... and Slurpee machines. Tenants’ rights, baby!
My first question too. Will the government be “providing” cleaning and inspection crews to the poor and migrantly type folks?
My daughter rented a little cottage for three years. The landlord told her he was most picky about the stove. If the stove is dirty you lose the deposit.
When she moved out he said that only one person left the place better than she did. Her cat had ruined a blind and she left it to the last minute and the hardware stores didn’t have it in stock. Even though I kept reminding her. I think he charged her $100 for a $20 blind. Hopefully it was a good learning lesson for her. I told her he could have just as easily kept $200 of her deposit.
This would be an easy bill to kill.
Remind Tina she would be helping the Trump economy. Is she pro-MAGA?
And why stop with those? Why not a maid and a butler as well?
When I was young, my landlords all loved me as a tenant.
I left every place cleaner than when I moved in, fixed issues myself, always paid the rent in full before the due date, and lived quietly.
Always got my deposit back in full.
California used to be a wonderful place to live. Before the politicians ruined it.
That’s what security deposits are for.
Of course, knowing California there’s probably a law against it.
Same here, including Military Housing.
You don’t move out of your house or apartment unless it’s ‘Spick and Span.’
I noticed this was common in TX yrs ago when I lived there....rented a house (not apt), no fridge. Also no washer or dryer.
Every apartment I’ve seen came with fridge and range. Kept the apartments looking uniform and you don’t end up with a bunch of different colors of used ranges or a 24 inch fridge in a 30 inch hole. Deposit covered cleaning.
Having lived in an apartment for many years, I can’t imagine even considering renting an apartment without a refrigerator and oven.
Same here. Usually made a deal with the landlords - you buy the supplies (paint, fixtures, etc.) and I’ll do the work free. Win-win situation - I made it a better place to live, he got a better place to rent when I moved out.
I was going to say, I lived in many apartments before I could afford a house, everyone I rented had a stove and refrigerator and you left it behind when you left, the only appliances I took with me were a washer and dryer I purchased, from one apartment which had the hookups
Given that much of California is rent controlled this law would essentially make landlords buy tenants a free fridge and stove.
I can top that. During the 50’s when my parents were newly married, they fixed up a house they were renting so beautifully that the owners didn’t renew their lease. The owners moved into the house.
The most degusting thing between renters is cleaning the stove and refrigerator. How people are not inflicted with more disease is beyond me
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