Fridge issues in rental
landlord tenant attorney Florida Jul 31, 2026
Location: Florida I currently rent a house and was away for a month on a trip. When I returned I found that at some point during my travels, the outside breaker had been tripped causing the majority of the house to lose power, including the fridge. In light of this, I came home to a freezer filled with rotten sludge and maggots (I emptied the fridge half of all perishables before I left but assumed the freezer would be fine). I did my best to clean the fridge as best as possible but it still reeks and has maggots in places that I am incapable of reaching. I know this because even after cleaning I have found flies starting to crawl out of cracks behind the walling, and given how much of the fridge was covered in maggots, i guarantee they also found their ways into the vents and other holes back there. The power outage was not through a fault of my own and the power company suggested it was likely due to a storm. Based on what I have found online and on my rental agreement, the fridge is an appliance that the landlord is supposed to supply and seemingly replace/fix if something goes wrong. I reached out to the rental company my landlord works through and requested a new fridge, letting them know that I felt it was impossible to get clean without fully taking the fridge apart. They responded saying that they will not proceed with a refrigerator replacement, but instead suggested that I hire a cleaning service to deep clean the fridge. The owner also said that as a goodwill gesture they would contribute 100 dollars to the price of cleaning the fridge. The fridge does still functionally work, its just disgusting and I would ideally prefer to get it replaced, and if thats not something the owner is liable for then I may look into buying my own fridge (I am truly skeptical that the fridge can be cleaned without fully taking it apart). My question is what if anything the owner is liable for. Do they have to buy a new fridge? Do they only need to do so if a cleaning is attempted and judged unviable? If they dont need to buy a new one, do they have to pay for the full cost of the fridge cleaning or is the 100 dollars the best I can hope for? Last note, I understand there is also some liability for loss of food but as I dont have a clear list of what was in the fridge beforehand, I am not really considering asking for this, as I really just want the fridge replaced and at this point could care less about the food.
