Comments on: Lemme break it down for you

By: L

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:57:22 +0000

The last time our oven died, we had a microwave that took half an hour to boil a cup of water, and my mother had just had back surgery. I was 14, so yeah, we ate out a lot because actually having a warm meal was nice.

Didn’t have a walmart either.

By: s0nicfreak

s0nicfreak — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:46:30 +0000

To be fair, a lot of people don’t even KNOW that you can lift that part and clean under it. My husband was amazed the first time he saw me do it.

By: s0nicfreak

s0nicfreak — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:44:34 +0000

I have a 6 person family, and if my oven broke it would be more cost effective to go to walmart and get a slowcooker for $20 than to eat one meal at McDonalds or such (about $35 to fill up my family). And if it was broken for several days it would be more cost effective to get a large toaster oven for $80 than to eat at McDonalds. And while I can understand not wanting to go through the trouble if you’re in a situation where you can just take the money for fastfood out of the rent, they should have alternatives on hand, in case of situations such as the oven breaks during a storm and the landlord physically CAN’T get to them for several days.

By: kbnorman

kbnorman — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 01:03:34 +0000

Perhaps they managed to get a couple meals out of the toaster shakings and such under and behind the stove?

By: Clider

Clider — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 23:37:55 +0000

You CAN withold rent only if you put what you are withholding in an escrow account. You can’t just say, “I’m not paying you anymore”, regardless of how the laws are here in Florida.

By: shepd

shepd — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 23:12:39 +0000

Tenant unfriendly Ontario does force landlords to:

– Have heat above 70 F in most cities
– Not collect any security whatsoever
– Pay interest on Last Month’s Rent equivalent to rent increases
– Increase rent only by a set amount (generally under 3% a year) unless major renovations were done and special variances applied for (which are hard to get)
– Wait weeks to evict you for refusing to pay rent
– Let you have any pets you want even if the landlord specifies it is against the rules (unless the pet is proven to be dangerous to other tenants, to be proven per individual animal, not per breed)
– Must let you create a tenant’s association and must respect it
– Requires landlords convert all leases to month-to-month after the maximum 1 year contract
– No landlord entry to the apartment without 24 hours written notice
– Must let you sublease if you are in a 1 year contract and wish to leave
– If you are in a building with 6 or more units, the landlord cannot make you leave because he’d like to live there, and if he sells the unit you have the right to cancel the sale and purchase it for yourself at the sale price.

Definitely tenants get screwed in Ontario! Can you imagine living there with such pathetic protections?

By: shepd

shepd — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 22:59:15 +0000

No wonder the stove won’t make you any meals. You clearly aren’t paying it enough! DUH!!!

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:04:41 +0000

I’ve never trusted a rental stove — or a landlord, for that matter — again since, many years ago, we rented an apartment with an electric stove and when I lifted up the top to clean under the burners, I discovered at least a half-inch of pure grease sitting there just waiting to start a fire. Clearly, when the landlord “cleaned” the apartment for us, it was cursory at best!

By: Vulpis

Vulpis — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:24:11 +0000

Depends on just where they’ve planted it and how curb-side pickup of large items works where they are, really. Granted, if it’s curb-side, their note isn’t going to be that effective, either.

By: Ames

Ames — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:47:18 +0000

Assuming that the range is broken but still able to be repaired, I hope that the tenants checked the weather forecast before putting that thing outside.

By: Tesselara

Tesselara — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:56:01 +0000

That happened to me too. It’s rather exciting– a little bit of pyrotechnics thrown in to your evening meal. Easy to replace with a part from Home Depot. Silly Landlord. Heating elements are for stoves.

By: Will

Will — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:06:34 +0000

My guess is that the heating element burned out. That’s like a $40 part, plus labor. Maybe $100 total.
Your landlord was penny wise and pound foolish.

By: Adriana

Adriana — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:39:57 +0000

A few years ago, I was living in an apartment when my stove broke. The burners still worked, but the oven released a ‘poof’ and a weird nose, then just turned off. I notified the landlord and he took about 4-5 days just to address the problem, but his genius plan was giving us an old, dirty oven from the vacant upstairs apartment and then moving our clean, but broken oven into our side yard – where it sat for several months, I BELIEVE until we moved out. Every time I looked out my bedroom window, I saw that oven and got angry all over again.

By: H for Toy

H for Toy — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:21:09 +0000

While I realize that not everyone has all the extra kitchen appliances I have, not too long ago, I successfully cooked full meals for a family of 4, for a week and a half, using an electric skillet, a crock pot, a grill and a microwave. It takes a little ingenuity, but it can be done.