After landlord denies responsibility for a fire-damaged dryer and keeps the deposit, his tenant uses his own lease terms to sell the “ownerless” washer and dryer before moving out: ‘[He] refused to fix appliances, so I sold them’

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Sep 4, 2026 9:45 AM EDT

This landlord had a simple theory of property ownership: the premium washer and gas dryer existed in the rental house, but they were not his appliances, not his responsibility, and definitely not his problem

Which means he's part of a divine group of landlords who have mastered the art of being a landlord only during the fun parts, meaning the monthly rent collection, the occasional inspection where they point at a plant and ask whether it belongs there, and the deep satisfaction of knowing somebody else is paying off their mortgage. And treat the rest of the "job", including repairs, basic upkeep, and returning deposits, like an unexpected project that nobody warned them about.

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    Landlord refused to fix appliances, so I sold them

    Bearded man smiles at his phone while standing outside
    via Sergii Kozii

    Guy smiling at his phone

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Several years ago we rented a nice house in a nice neighborhood. It came with a laundry room complete with a very premium washer and a gas- dryer. After about a month, the
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    dryer *burned* a load of laundry... It actually cinged and charred the clothes. I immediately took pictures and emailed the landlord
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    to try and recoup the cost of our clothes ($300?) and have the dryer fixed. He responded:
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    > "The lease is clear and does not include a washer or dryer. If those appliances are present, they were left from a previous tenant and
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    are not mine. I am not responsible for anything I do not provide which would be documented in the lease."
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    I was ped and I paid out of pocket for the repairs and to replace the clothes.
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    About three months later, we met a few former tenants and started talking about the house. They actually did quite a few
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  • An appliance can be sitting in the laundry room when tenants move in, looking very much like part of the house and doing a decent impression of something the owner is responsible for, rjust until it catches fire. Then, without warning, it becomes an archaeological artifact left by a previous tenant, a mysterious object with no owner, no paperwork, and absolutely zero connection to the person collecting rent for the house it lives in. Very convenient arrangement, that is.

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    improvements to the home and left her home in better condition than when they moved in, and the landlord still refused to
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    refund their deposit. A neighbor confirmed that he hasn't returned a single deposit and suggested we read the lease to the letter,
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    Bearded guy texting and smiles, standing out side with a satisfied look on his face
    via Sergii Kozii

    Tenant texting, looking pleased 

    Representative only.

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    about because the guy was a j everything. Apparently, it was a nice house because of the tenants, not the landlord.
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    Well, fast forward 10 months to the end of our lease, and I read that thing carefully. **I then listed and sold the washer and dryer!!!** Not even 2 hours after
    via OzTheMeh

  • People like this love a lease when it protects them and treat it like unread fan fiction when it does not. They will locate one sentence buried on page nine, quote it like they are arguing before the Supreme Court, and use it to explain why a repair is not their issue. Then the tenants move out, and the same landlord is shocked to discover that words have consequences, especially when the words were written by him and saved in an email.

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    we turned the keys in, I got an angry voicemail demanding we return his overpriced washer and dryer.
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    My response was a simple reply to his email declining his ownership of the appliances:
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    >I received your voicemail and I'm not sure which appliances you are referring to. As you stated, the lease clearly states there was not a washer/dryer included and
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    you confirm that below. The lease also states, "Tenant is responsible for all reasonable costs incurred by Landlord to remove, haul, store, or dispose of property left behind."
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    He still refused to give us our deposit, for a plethora of other negligible things. But, I still came out ahead because I pocketed
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  • Then the landlord’s little game runs into its natural enemy: a tenant with receipts, a copy of the contract, and enough patience to repeat his own logic back to him.

  • It's like security deposits are where these people really find their calling. A normal person sees a deposit as money held in case something goes wrong. A certain kind of landlord sees it as a small inheritance that tenants never realize they have already donated. There will be cleaning charges, vague damage charges, fees for things that existed before the tenant arrived, and perhaps a charge for the emotional distress caused by having to read an email.

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    about the same as our deposit, the repair costs, the burnt clothes, and maybe $100 for my troubles.
    via OzTheMeh

  • The funny part is that we tenants eventually learn. Save messages. Photograph everything. Read the lease slowly and carefully, like it is a cursed treasure map written by a man who thinks a dryer can be ownerless until someone else sells it. 

  • 20
    jamieT97 Depending where you are you can take him to court and get your deposit back as well
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    RealUltimatePapo "They're not mine, I swear!" "...oh, wait, they totally are again" What a piece of work. Great move selling the appliances, he must have been so ped
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    Unique_Engineering23 That's one of the best clawbacks I have heard in regards to landlords.
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    Hot-Win2571 The lease giveth, and the lease taketh away.
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    nushustu Whenever I have a landlord who claims problems in order to keep my deposit, I just say okay can you please send my an itemized receipt of expenses justifying keeping the deposit "for tax purposes."
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    Generally that makes them realize I'll get the IRS involved, and nobody wants that. I usually get most of my deposit back after that.
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    ValleyWoman Seriously, file in Small Claims. He should have given you a breakdown list of every charge to your deposit. Hopefully you took photos of the condition of the house when you left.
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  • 27
    Neither-Investment95 Try and get as many if the previous tenants who didn't get their deposit back and start a lawsuit against him
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  • 28
    Cyrano Yoshi We are literally having the same dispute! We moved in April and the property had a washing machine, we already owned one but thought it was easier to use the existing machine as it's already installed. We put ours in the garage.
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    Fast forward to now and the machine is playing up, so we contact the landlord to ask if it can be either repaired/serviced or removed and stored so we can installed our old machine.
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    He wrote back saying it was not part of the tenancy, simply left behind by the previous tenants, and therefore not his responsibility to clean or maintain, and if we wanted to remove it we'd have to do that off our own backs.
    via OzTheMeh
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    We went back to check the original letting advertisement (and inventory upon check-in) and what a surprise, washing machine is listed. We look forward to seeing how this goes....
    via OzTheMeh

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Tags

landlord dryer rental lease tenant washing machine bad landlord appliance entitled renting karen entitled people
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