Overseas landlord - tenant replaced my fridge without asking

[NewToRenting]

Hi everyone. My tenants moved out recently and the check out report had a completely different brand of fridge listed, which has some cracks/ chips and some drawers missing.
Admittedly my old fridge had been in the property for a while, but no reported issues or cracks or missing parts.
The estate agents who manage the property say unless I can prove my original fridge was brand new, all they can claim from the tenant's deposit is the cost for replacing the missing drawers.
I am absolutely livid. Surely that's not right? I agree that the original fridge was not brand new. However, I have no way of ascertaining how old the replacement fridge was. Theoretically the estate agent is telling me that the tenant could have sold my 5 year old fridge,and replaced it with a 20 year old relic off ebay and pocketed the profit before leaving my property?
Not sure what I should do?

unless you have a very detailed inventory and give the managing agency enough money and permission to quickly repair of replace faulty items then this needs to be filed under 'experience'.

You need to be relaxing white goods every few years as a responsible landlord. Not waiting for them to break

and even if you appoint an agent to manage the property the buck still stops with you.

If you are unable to prove how old the fridge is it must be more than 7 years old otherwise you would have retained the receipt for your tax records. Seriously wither let the property with no fridge or go on ebay and get a second hand decent one or a brand new one and set it off against your income tax generated by the rental income.

More likely it was the management company

Unless it was a smell or big American freezer, I seriously doubt they sold it! I couldn't get rid of our working fridge, not even for free. Had to scrap it in the end! It probably broke, they paid to have it removed when their new one arrived. You have to expect fridges to break.

We are landlords to several properties. The ones local fo us we manage ourselves and touch wood, we have very few issues. We can get hold of our own contractors when stuff goes wrong and pay them direct. We've also got some properties in another part of the Uk that are managed by a letting agency. On the whole the agency is pretty good. They always manage to get decent tenants and the rent is paid on time. However, about twice a year we get bills for stuff which makes us say 'how much????!' We ring the agency and it goes back and forth a bit but we invariably mutter and pay. Our mantra for letting these via an agency is ' we know sometimes we will be fucked over, and that's fine as long as the rent is regular and the fucking over isn't too often'

In law if it were England anyway they stole the original fridge just as much as if someone came into my house and took my TV and put another in its place. As you hold the cards - the deposit email the tenants and ask them for the original fridge back. It is possible they stored it in the loft or something and can put it back in now they have left and remove theirs so everyone is then happy.

I'd let it go. It's not worth getting livid about. Presumably they were otherwise good tenants and left the place clean and tidy and in good condition? Paid their rent on time?

Life is too short to get furious about an old fridge.

As you hold the cards - the deposit email the tenants and ask them for the original fridge back.

But she does not hold the deposit (or the cards). It's held by a third party, and landlords can't help themselves to it any more. They have to persuade the deposit protection agency that they are owed it, with proper evidence and valuations. Otherwise by default it belongs to the tenant.

She's lost one second-hand fridge (value: square root of bugger all) and acquired an alternative second-hand fridge (ditto).

(If anything significant ever does go wrong at this flat the OP is going to spontaneously combust )

Err yes the check-in and check-out reports clearly state the brand of the fridge (with photos) - that's how I know it's been replaced. My old one worked perfectly and had no cracks or missing parts.

For those who assumed we don't respond to tenant complaints, I pay a small ransom to my agent and they email/ call me for any issues, and we are very prompt in responding. We keep our property in very good nick. All faulty appliances are fixed or replaced. Before this tenant moved in, we renovated the entire bathroom and replaced all the external windows - we basically spent the entire previous year's rental income.

After repairs and agent fees, we barely make money on the property, but we do want a home to move into when we come back to the UK.

Being a landlord doesn't automatically mean we are evil. And yes if people take things without asking, that's stealing. If this replacement fridge is a piece of crap, I will have to fork out for a new one, when my old one may well have lasted a few more years - but we'll never know, will we?

I didn't realise second hand appliances were so cheap - but I am not physically present to sort it all out. I just order new stuff off Currys or Argos online when needed, paying for installation of the new and disposal of the old.

To summarise, I am upset because the tenant stole from me - the current price is immaterial, it's the replacement cost (of a new fridge) that I am looking at. I am also upset that despite having documentary evidence of different models in the check in/ check out reports, I seem to have no recourse, as per my estate agent.

I worked my butt off to be able to afford this tiny 2 bed flat. For those of you who automatically assume "landlord bad, tenant good"...please don't.

I am not looking for sympathy (!), I wanted to know if there was something I could do, somewhere I could file a complaint...looks like there isn't, and I just have to deal with it.

Forgot to say, if my old fridge had broken, the tenant would have complained, and received a replacement new one.

How old was the old fridge though?
They should not have changed it without telling you. However, there is a law in the U.K. against 'betterment' which means you can't profit from a tenant by getting better than you left them. If the fridge was older than the age you could claim anything towards replacing it (maybe 7 years? Not sure exactly) then you can't claim anything to replace it, and if it was younger than that you can claim a % but you'll need evidence.

@MauveMagnolia

You need to be relaxing white goods every few years as a responsible landlord. Not waiting for them to break

Replacing appliances that are in perfect working order after just a few years? No wonder the planet is in trouble

I'd be annoyed too OP.

@ChevreChase

MurielSpriggsI'm not bonkers! I have rented three properties in the last decade: no fridge, ancient fridge, no fridge. So the fridge freezer travels the country with us. I think it's really likely that the tenants took it, rather than pay hundreds for a new one. I would bet my Bosch on it.

Yes this is the most likely explanation - needed one for their next place, found one on the free pages 'do for someone starting out' and left that one and took yours. It would be impossible to prove though, and ultimately they could just say that it broke so they replaced it.

Annoying as it is it is probably has to be chalked up as one of those 'if this is the worst that happens' things.

What the flip is wrong with people?! The tenants nick the fridge and that's seemingly ok? No, it's theft, whether they replaced it or not. I'm completely with you, op, although I don't know what you can do about it and it'll likely cost you more to pursue it than to just purchase a second hand fridge to replace it. Next time, I'd let the place out unfurnished.

We rent out DH's flat and had one tenant who disposed of the sofa cushions i.e. the main padded bits for sitting on, and left a couple of small scatter cushions in their place. What possessed them to do this instead of telling us they were damaged/whatever, I have no idea. In the end, they had a choice between replacing the entire sofa or paying to have new cushion insides made. They went with the latter which was only possible because we had a spare set of covers.

I think you need to suck it up.
We were in your position , living overseas and renting our house out. If the only thing we had to replace was a fridge freezer we’d have been overjoyed.
After 2 washing machines and a cooker, we stripped the house of everything apart from the cooker and let it unfurnished

Deduct the cost of your fridge from their deposit? Check all you emails for a deposit.

Sorry that sent before I could finish it! Check all your emails for a receipt. If you don't have one, then I don't know where you stand. I think they've taken it with them and left an older one that was gifted to them. I do think that they should replace it as its not the same age as you had provided. Meaning you'll end up replacing this one very soon.

If the rest of the property is in good condition I would forget it and focus on getting new tenants in.

@Beautiful3

Deduct the cost of your fridge from their deposit? Check all you emails for a deposit.

You can't deduct the cost of a new fridge regardless of what happened to the old one. Only the cost of a proportion of a new fridge depending on how old the old one was.

You might have more luck in the legal section OP. Though I expect being able to only deduct the depreciated worth of the fridge from the deposit will be the answer. I'd think they'd probably taken it with them to their new place, but there's not really anything you can do to prove that.

Livid would be stripping the house bear
I would imagine so the bear would not be pleased either

It will depend what the loss is and what the tenancy agreement says but I would certainly ask them where it is. Eg I am quite attached to some items - I use my father's washing machine eg who died in 2010 and I have a fridge freezer we have had for 25 years and is wonderful.

A tenant could not eg get rid of a bed and put a different one in its place as they do not own that bed.

However I do agree that you can only deduct what the agreement and the law allows from the deposit. My son got his back from his student rental last week and they took of costs of double cleaning charges as they needed more cleaners than normal as it was in a bit of a state which we did not challenge as it felt acceptable.

Usually when tenants use their own stuff they ask the landlord to remove the original stuff before they move in or put it in a shed or loft out of the way and put it back after. My son's tenants eg did not use the new lawn mower once and I thought it may be missing but I found it in the loft space - good compromise - did not throw it out, chose not to use it but left it for the next tenants who might well be keen gardeners.