Apartment Appliance Responsibility

[Seth Gelineau]

I acquired an apartment building in December of 2019 and it came with a mishmash of appliances. It has 4 units and the apartment in question didn’t include the fridge.

I was contacted by the tenant and they said their fridge wasn’t working and basically said it’s either I get a new fridge or their rent goes toward a new fridge.

The current tenant bought the fridge when the previous owner said they couldn’t afford to replace the one that was in the apartment when they moved in.

Is this really my responsibility to replace the fridge? It is not in the lease as being part of the appliances that come in the unit.

I ended up replacing it but do I need to somehow add it to the lease so they don’t move out with it at some point? Unfortunately the previous landlord did not have a security so it’s not like I can take it out of that.