this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2025
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How the fuck was it not required before.
My wife and I moved from an apartment to a tiny two bedroom house when I got a new job about 10 years ago. We had to buy our own fridge. And when we moved out we "sold" it and the washer/dryer to the couple that moved in after us because our next place was thankfully furnished.
Sometimes you really need legislation.
Meanwhile, when I bought a house, the fridge was supposed to be conveyed as a fixture as per the terms of the FHA financing.
(The seller sold it anyway and my real estate agent bought me fridge out of his commission to save the deal, but still, the Federal government dictated that it was supposed to come with the house even as a purchase, let alone a rental.)
Should have taken it out of the sellers money.
I don't know, maybe they did settle it up like that at closing. All I know is that my agent literally went to the store and bought the thing himself, and that I didn't pay for it.
In California I think when this takes effect it will be any contact signed after. Also they can put in the agreement that renter will supply their own or something. It's been awhile since I last read about it though so I might be wrong.
I feel bad for all the people who are gonna potentially end up with a fucking thrift shop mini fridge from all these cheap ass slumlords.
Edit - shit I replied to the wrong comment sorry
Buying homes is a bit different imo. My parents made it clear every time we moved that the fridge and washer/dryer were moving with us. One time we had someone try to say they wanted my dad's Big Green Egg included and he literally told them to fuck off. However, every new build home they bought came with a fridge, microwave, and stove.
If you're buying in cash or with a conventional loan, I guess the terms can be whatever you want. But I was a first-time buyer with an FHA loan, and the FHA itself imposed habitability requirements that included having a fridge. (They also made the seller fix a broken window and missing porch railing.)
That's why I thought the comparison was interesting: I'd have assumed California protections for renters would be way ahead of federal protections for buyers, given that the state is more progressive and the constituency is more vulnerable.
What's wrong with buying your own fridge? I guess moving it sucks, but it's not like it makes a difference cost whise in the end
My current appartment came without a kitchen, so I bought my own and will take it with me to the next one
It's a huge up-front cost, and a major pain to move - can't just huck it in the back of your sedan; you'd quite possibly need to pay someone to move it, or have to rend equipment to do so. You'd also have to sell it at a loss, or even worse just throw it out, when you inevitably move someplace already furnished with one.
An apartment owner clearly already has sufficient capital, and the appliance would never need to be moved or sold.
Because large appliances do not always fit in all spaces, they are very hard to transport, and have a high likelihood of becoming waste. There's virtually no benefit to buying your own fridge and relocating with it.
I guess but that also applies to all other furniture. You can rent a fully furnished apartment if you like, personally I'd rather make the space my own
Same thing that's wrong with buying your own sink, cabinets, bathtub, flooring, etc.
You sound European. Unlike in your case, American kitchens are very built-in and are typically only removed with a sledgehammer when it's time to renovate.
Ironically the picture shows an Ikea kitchen, with the same bamboo drawers I have xD
Dude, imagine my fucking surprise to move in to an apt in LA after leaving NYC, and suddenly realizing there was no fridge.
I scrounged someone's garage fridge off craigslist, gave it some maintenance and it worked great, but still: what ze fook?
I’m in California too and my impression is that if they provide an appliance in the lease terms then they’re responsible for servicing it. Landlords are probably trying to keep their maintenance costs low.
They shouldn't be landlords if they don't want the extra costs that come with it.
Agreed. In my area, which is supposed to have excellent renter protections, they basically only need to provide walls, floor, ceiling that doesn’t leak, windows in the bedroom, electricity, working plumbing, and heat that has to be able to meet a certain warmth threshold. Oven isn’t a requirement, fridge isn’t a requirement. When my stove broke the landlord asked if we really needed one or if we could just use the microwave. Luckily since it came with the place he had to replace it.
I think you can cut that off before 'if'
There's a term for that: Slumlord.
Some apartments require you to supply your own fridge. It’s dumb, but I’ve run into it before. This is good legislation. Especially the part about it having to work.
Legislation like this is not good. It drives the process of unaffordable housing by pushing up the floor on the “minimum possible apartment.”
Bullshit, spread out its dollars per month and a half way competent landlord will claim the depreciation on taxes.
I went to college and lived a couple of years afterward in LA and it was seriously tough for a broke college student to manage to get their first apartment and furnish their own fridge. It sucked. It seemed to be a quirk of LA, though perhaps other counties do it too. When I moved home to the Bay Area, everywhere had fridges already.
There was one place I looked at while renting in the Bay Area that didn't come with a fridge. We just left.
Meanwhile in Germany, they rent completely empty apartments, i.e. no kitchen at all. No cabinets, no appliances. Not all of them do it, and sometimes you can buy the kitchen from the previous tenant. But yeah, lol.
That seems like a giant pain in the ass...
What do you do as a renter? Install your Ikea kitchen and then take it with you to your next apartment when your lease is up and they don't want to renew? Good luck finding a place with the same layout
I don't live in Germany, but from my understanding (and related experiences from the neighboring country) you either try to sell it to the next tenant or on the marketplace. I guess some take the kitchen with them if they can. I would guess 2nd hand market is as big as it is in my place. You can furnish a place for quite cheap as a tenant.
Because of landlords? Industry lobbying groups in Sweden wants to see appartments without kitchens even, so this appears a great win in the right direction for you all.