White goods in a rental property

[RelocatorRelocator]

Landlord on our new rented house has said they are leaving white goods as a favour but are not responsible for repairing or replacing them if they break. Can they do this? I always thought that if you supplied white goods you were responsible for ensuring that service was maintained iykwim?

The house is otherwise unfurnished if that makes a difference. They also said if we don't want the white goods then they are going to store them in the outbuilding which is available for our use.

Firstly

If the house is advertised as having an out building and therefore the rent is higher because of this then no he cant store his stuff there.

It would have to be in your contract that they will not replace white goods if they break.

We have a house we rent, it has a built in oven, hob and fridge and a freestanding dishwasher. The oven, hob and fridge are part of the rental agreement and we have to maintain them, the dishwasher is 'gifted' to the tenant so he doesn't pay rent for it and if/when it packs up we just need to get rid of it rather than replace it. Quite common apparently. Re storage in outbuilding, you would need to negotiate that.

Yes quite common. We have supplied a washing machine to our tenants as we had one spare and they were having trouble finding the cash to buy one. We've told them they can take it with them when they go (hopefully they'll stay a while!) but if it needs works they have to sort it.

Normally white goods aren't included as most renters have their own that moves with them.

Also depends how big the outbuilding is. Would the white goods take up all the space or just an unused corner?

hmm, sounds a bit 'having it both ways' to me. If they supply them then they are responsible for them.

furnishing levels make no difference.

if you are already in the place with a signed contract, they can't change anything without your agreement. So they can't suddenly store stuff in your space, that would need to be agreed before you sign up.

if you aren't already in/signed up, options are for them to give/sell you the white goods, you then become responsible. If they do want to store them, then you are losing storage space.

what do you want to happen?

Perfectly standard clause for unfurnished. Tenants can use the white goods, but if they break they are either scrapped or tenant pays for repair. It was in the contracts for me both as landlord and tenant.

Thanks, everyone. We've compromised: they leave white goods with no obligation to repair/replace but will remove from the property if they break.

The storage area was clearly marketed as part of the deal - but it's not much use to me if I have to move my stuff to make way for broken appliances!

Interesting. Around here my tenants have never paid for white goods repairs! They are considered to be my responsibility and nearly all houses have white goods included. I will look into this now! However DD rents a student flat and the white goods in that are the landlord's responsibility.

No, they can't do this (however common people are saying it is). Anything supplied by the LL is their responsibility if it breaks.

I was told by a solicitor that, if they are there when you move in, they are the landlord's responsibility to repair.