Am I allowed to do that in the apartment I rent?

Question

I rent a 2bed/2bath apartment in Florida.It is 1300 a month.I lived in the same community in a 1bed/1bath apartment for 1050 for 18 months. My electricity bill for two people in 1/1 was around $80 with using AC. In my new apartment the last one was $300. The washer/dryer/microwave/refrigerator in the new apartment are quite old and they are they have the largest consumption of electricity.My lanlord say there's nothing wrong with the equipment and $250 electricity for three people in 2B/2B is normal. Legally, am I allowed to purchase new and more economical equipment if they don't want to change it and have him take their crap out and decrese my rent? Or how can I make him buy new ones?Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Wow, you can do none of the above. You can not force someone to make purchases for their property that they do not want. You agreed to the appliances when you rented the place.

If you have a problem ask if YOU can pay for your own things, and he remove his from the property. That way you can have exactly what you want and no one else has to pay the cost for you. Some landlords would not allow this, because removing and disposing of appliances is not cheap in itself, but you can ask.

Answer 2

1 bdrms are always alot cheaper on electricity than everything else. A few years back i was in a 1bdrm and paid 15 to 20 per month. Then i moved into an apt accross the street that was a little less than twice the size of the 1bdrm (and was upstairs on top of that) The electric always ran from 90 to 120.

I do have to admit that 300$ is quite alot of money for electricity for an apartment despite what size you have. There is a possibility that they read the meter wrong. (that happened to me once. The electric company overcharged me by 1000 Kwh, but the very next month my bill was super cheap.

Answer 3

You can replace the appliances with new ones of your choice, but don't expect the landlord to either lower the rents or buy the appliances. That's going to come out of your pocket.

As long as the appliances provided are in good working order, you have no beef with the landlord. Of course you would also own the appliances and would be entitled to take them with you when you leave. If the landlord is cooperative, he will store the ununsed ones until you leave.

Answer 4

Were you on what they call budget billing? Also all utilities are going up. You need to check your state laws on adding anything to the home. Normally anything that you had that has to be permanently attached to the home becomes property of the home owner. Which does not include appliances. I have a feeling with your bill that high it does not have much to do with your appliances. It could be the heating/cooling of the home. Also newer HD tv's raise your electric bill very high. Some require alot of wattage to run.

Answer 5

You can replace the appliences all you want but you have to keep the originals to put them back. They are under no obligation to replace things that aren't broken..even if they aren't energy efficient. You will be the proud new owner of some appliences when you leave there.

Call the power company and have them give you bills for that residence in the past...ours in Missouri will do that for you. See if you can get the energy cost for apartments around your...the one next door...upstairs...then you can have a comparison.

Answer 6

do you have your own electric power consumption meter?

if you are relying on the landlord he may just be dividing the cost of the amount of power used by all the apartments so some tenants are getting shafted.

you can do an energy audit to see how much power you are really using.

Answer 7

beware on up grading any rental--some state laws the landlord can take possession even though you paid for upgrade.your going to have to sit down with landlord and make a deal.If you spend the money to upgrade then you make sure its in writing with serial numbers of all appliances( taking photos helps).as far as him reducing rent its their option to do so.Most state laws only require that rentals have proper facilities in working order.consumption efficient appliances is not one of the requirements

Answer 8

You only have three options:

1. Don't use it and go to a Laundromat still pay utilities

2. Wear dirty clothes and still pay utilities

3. Move

Sorry, you can't force your landlord to do anything. As long as it's working you don't really have a case against them.

Answer 9

If you have a friend who works for a real estate attorney, you should ask them. Otherwise, you should visit your local public library and ask the librarian for books on Florida tenant law.

Answer 10

You are probably stuck with what is there unless the landlord will let you replace the appliances at your own expense.