California Bill would oblige owners to provide refrigerations in apartments

Tired of traveling Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for a decent refrigerator because your new apartment has not come with one?

This headache could become one thing in the past with a new bill in the California legislative assembly which, if it is approved, would force the owners to provide refrigerators and stoves in their rentals.

Why are certain rentals listed without refrigerator?

The simple answer is that the owners do not have to provide refrigerator.

The existing Californian law requires that any building with maintaining housing “certain characteristics for being locable”, which includes the maintenance of adequate heating and hot water systems.

Even if cooking and storage of food may seem like a necessity to live in any kind of housing situation, household appliances are legally classified as amenities.

The number of Californians who entered new leases without such luxuries is much higher than any other state, according to an analysis of the Times in 2022.

Research has shown that the counties of Los Angeles and Orange “offered the least number of apartments with refrigerators among nearly two dozen large metropolitan areas.”

Why is the lack of a refrigerator such pain?

This is the additional cost of buying the device.

The average monthly rent in the city of Los Angeles is $ 2,347, higher than the national average of $ 1,995, according to Zillow.

But the highest average rent in the surroundings is $ 4,500, in Ladera Heights.

When you enter a lease, you provide the owner with the first month rent and a security deposit. If a refrigerator is not provided, you plan to spend on a new device or search online a used.

Product analysts say that the average price of a new refrigerator is between $ 600 and $ 2,300, the basic is between $ 200 and $ 600 and the high -end is between $ 2,300 and $ 5,000.

If you are on the market for a second -hand refrigerator, the cheapest list of Times found on Facebook Marketplace is $ 25 for a two -door whirlwind. The seller described it as “not so beautiful outside but perfect for a garage or even outside”.

What Bill 628 would do

When the assembly of the Tina McKinnor Assembly (D-Hawthorne), whose 61st district covers the communities of Inglewood to Marina Del Rey, presented Bill 628 of the Assembly, it realized that the refrigerators and the stoves were legally labeled as amenities. She decided to make a necessity with the new bill.

The invoice, if adopted, would add a stove and a refrigerator in good working order and capable of generating heat safely for cooking and storing food, respectively, as a requirement of owners from January 1, 2026.

McKinnor said that she had regular town halls with her communities and the main concerns she had heard from the voters offer rent, the price increase in grocery stores and everyday bills.

“We know that people are really struggling with the high cost of food, gas, household items and in addition to that, many people spend more than half of their rent income,” she said.

She wants the tenants to have less payment to think when entering a new lease.

If the bill is approved, an owner “cannot have you in a rental without refrigerator just as he cannot have you in there without running water or radiator” from next year, said McKinnor.

There are rentals that come with the device, but McKinnor wants everyone to have the essential article.

Who will be in charge of the device if he breaks down?

Similar to a radiator who needs repair or replacement, McKinnor said that the owner will be responsible for fixing or replacing a refrigerator.

Will the device make a requirement increase the rental prices?

In the city of Los Angeles, the owners can increase rent once every 12 months by the percentage of an admissible rent increase required by the order on the stabilization of rents.

Rentals which are not subject to the order on the stabilization of rents include:

• Unifamilial houses
• Affordable housing or luxury housing exempt from the Los Angeles housing service
• A rental built after October 1, 1978
• A converted commercial building which has converted to rental units after October 1, 1978