opinions please: dishwasher/landlord situation
august8080
member
In August, we became renters after 6 years of owning our home. I would like opinions on whether I'm being reasonable or not.
The house we live in was built in '93 and it looks like the dishwasher is original to the house (white, old). It is TERRIBLE. The worst dishwasher I've ever used. Basically, I have to wash everything that goes in it completely and only use it for sanitizing purposes....and even then there is still food crusted on from the rinse cycle. I hate it and I feel like I'm wasting time and water.
Is it reasonable to ask the landlord to replace it? The thing is, they lived here for the last 9 years so they must know, firsthand, how bad it is. How they tolerated it, I don't know. If we owned this house, I would have replaced it immediately.
I know the worst they can say is no, but I guess I'm a little nervous to ask. First, because it must not have bothered them and second, because it's not technically "broken" so I sort of just feel like I'm complaining.
What would you do as the tenant? What would you think if you were a landlord?
ETA: We've got the water turned up pretty hot and I use Cascade detergent which has always worked for me in the past.
Re: opinions please: dishwasher/landlord situation
I would definitely think it's reasonable to ask. And like you said, the worst he can say is no. We replaced our '98 dishwasher last year and its night and day difference in cleaning. i can only imagine how bad your '93 one is. but sometimes you don't know how bad something is until you see how good it could be with a new one. that or either they're just thinking, why offer to replace it, we'll just wait until they ask.
We also rent a place with an old, terrible dishwasher. Our landlord has been awesome about pretty much everything we've asked him to do, but we haven't said anything about the dishwasher since it's not technically broken.
And (maybe this is why it's so noticeable to you) we have always rented and I'm pretty sure we don't know what an awesome dishwasher works like. We've never been in the habit of putting in really dirty/crusty things with the expectation that they will actually come out clean.
I'm guessing the landlord probably already knows the dishwasher isn't great, and is holding out until it "breaks" or a tenant complains. Do you know - does your landlord own a lot of properties, or just 1 or 2? This might make a difference in my answer . . .
You could start by telling them the issue, and asking them i they have any recommendations on products, etc that they used to run the dishwasher better, see if they can come over and take a look, etc (Not that this will actually help, but just shows that you are open to suggestions).
If you dont think they'd be willing to get a new unit outright, possibly ask if you could contribute $100 towards the new purchase. That way, they are benefitting a little bit, and you benefit. As a landlord, I dont like old appliances that much anyways b/c they are a PITA when they have issues. To me, if something that old starts acting up, I usually will just buy a new appliance rather than paying a technician to come over and tell me I have an old appliance and it will cost more than replacement value to fix.
Ditto this 100%. We pretty much always do what our renters ask, especially if they are good tennants. We want to keep them so if the request is reasonable we really don't bat an eyelash at it. It also makes me feel less bad when we need to increase the rent because we fixed x, y, and z like they asked and made the place better for them. I think this is a very reasonable request. Maybe they ate out all of the time and rarely had dishes so they aren't aware how bad the dishwasher sucks. Good luck!
Thanks everyone.
To answer questions--this is their only rent house. They built another nearby and couldn't sell this one, so decided to rent it out instead. We just signed an 18 month lease so I'm not thrilled at the prospect of living with this thing for that long.
I think I'll email him this week.