White Goods clause in rental property?

Your post begs the question as to why? If you don’t want to accept the liability why provide them in the first place?

My view is that if you are undertaking to provide goods then they must be fit for purpose; you therefore have an obligation to maintain. Imagine hiring a car, only to be told that if it breaks down you have to repair it – you wouldn’t do it.

There’s probably no reason why you can’t put it in a contract, but the validty/enforceability would be questionable.

If you are finding the costs too much then is there something wrong with the quality of appliances, or maybe the type of tenants you have.

As far as I understand it, the answer is no. If you provide it, you must maintain it, regardless what you put in the agreement. In Scotland anyway, not sure if England is different.

as a as I am aware if you include at the start of the tenancy then you take responsibility for annual PAT testing, breakdowns and any replacement (unless tenant damages them and you can prove this but you would still have to replace then cross charge them)

Ergo – I always rent unfurnished.

You can if you gift the white goods. But the the tenants own them. Could buy 2nd hand white goods?
I only supplied a cooker. Fridge/freezer, washer-dryer etc was down to the tenants to arrange.

A previous tenant left a 12 month old washing machine in my property, I asked the new tenant whether they wanted it leaving in or not, if it was to be left in they would have to sign an agreement that it became their responsibility for maintenance/repairs/cleaning and disposal etc. They kept it and signed the written agreement, hopefully this is ok to do?

Reply to the comment left by Helen Smitj at 25/02/2022 – 14:00
I have done that before too.

One of my tenants pays a bit extra so they have a washing machine supplied by me. So you could build in a bit of ‘warranty type’ cover into the rent or gift them the white products. But they could legally take them with them if they move.
None of these products are overly expensive anymore.

Never been a problem for me. I always include the following clause (below) and its always been accepted. If they wish to install their own stand alone items then that’s fine otherwise its agree or don’t rent. However I did have fridge/freezer that went wrong a couple of weeks after they moved in so I had no issue with buying and installing a new one for them. I understand if they do buy/replace the item it will belong to them and they can take it with them when they leave. Again no problem.

Reply to the comment left by Glenn at 25/02/2022 – 14:09
Glenn
I assume that increases the deposit slightly?

https://www.landlordvision.co.uk/blog/landlord-tips-white-and-brown-goods/#:~:text=Landlord%20responsibilities%20for%20repairing%20and,a%20landlord's%20maintenance%2Frepair%20obligations.

Contrary to what you might think, supplying white goods does not mean you are obligated to repair and replace them. In the Landlord & Tenant Act 1985, it states in Section 11 that white goods don’t fall under a landlord’s maintenance/repair obligations. To avoid any painful misunderstandings, it’s sensible to make this very clear in the tenancy agreement and reiterate it to the tenant before they sign on the dotted line.