Tenant replaced stove without my knowledge and now issue with stove

[Linda Thomas]

Hello,

Tenant lived in unit for 9 yrs. Gas stove was new when tenant moved in. Tenant vacated unit last week and we noticed a different stove in unit. We questioned tenant and they said about a month ago the stove stopped working so they replaced it with a used one. We further questions why they did this without our Knowledge and we inform them that they were supposed to let us know if they were having a problem with their stove as it is the landlord's responsibility to repair or replace not theirs unless it was damaged caused by them. Needless to say, now the stove isnt working properly, the broiler function isnt working and there are a few other issues. We have a repair guy coming this week to check it out. Question is how would you handle this? If its repairable would u deduct part or all the costs from the security deposit? I know life expectancy on a gas stove is 15 years so I only had maybe 6 years left but why did the tenant inform me of this why did they do this behind my back why didn't they leave the old stove there so I could see that something was wrong with it maybe it was good that they tried to fix it but the still that's there is having an issue and I need to make sure that it is safe for the next tenant what if the stove is not fixable what would you do would you buy a brand new stove and have the tenant that just moved out pay for half of it for all of it how would you proceed with this looking for suggestions and advice thank you so much guys

[Bill B.]

I hate to play devil’s advocate or call someone a liar. But….

If you aren’t separating in greatest of terms, or the tenant needed the money. Can you tell me that you KNOW they didn’t sell/give your working stove to their friend who had a broken stove “since they’re moving out anyway…”

I do have $100 that says they couldn’t provide you with a receipt for the broken stove they bought 1 month ago.