Complaint To Landlord For Broken Appliances

When and how to use this letter

First, check your tenancy agreement or inventory list. Appliances listed there as provided with the flat are the landlord's responsibility; anything you bought yourself is yours. This single distinction decides the whole dispute, so quote the inventory in your letter if you can.

Describe each fault precisely — brand, model, what it does wrong — and photograph or video the fault in action. A vague complaint about 'the fridge not working' is easy to ignore; a dated video of the leaking washing machine is not.

Ask for repair by a qualified technician rather than suggesting you will handle it. If the appliance is beyond economic repair, the letter asks for a like-for-like replacement, which matters: some landlords quietly remove a broken appliance instead of replacing it, downgrading the flat you originally rented.

What happens next: most landlords repair provided appliances because a broken fridge in a furnished flat is an obvious breach of what was offered. If the landlord argues the fault is your misuse, your inventory photos from move-in day become decisive evidence. For persistent refusal, a tenant advisory body can tell you whether your local rules allow repair-and-deduct for appliances, which is stricter than for structural repairs. Keep the technician's report after the visit; a written record of what was fixed protects you if the same appliance fails again within weeks.

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