Landlord not putting a spin on time needed to install new washing machine
Q: I live in an eight-unit apartment building just outside Ottawa that has one washer and one dryer in a small laundry room. When I went to do my laundry this weekend, I couldn’t put the coins in the washer to make it run. I removed my clothes from the washer and took them to a friend’s building to wash them. When I came back to my building, I noticed a note from the landlord saying that the washing machine’s pay box had been broken into and that the landlord was buying new coinless laundry machines. He added that he hoped to install them soon. My lease says one of the services in my tenancy is coin laundry. There are no laundromats close to my building. How long does my landlord have to replace the washing machine? Does he have to provide me with a temporary solution while I wait? Am I entitled to a rebate of my rent for the inconvenience while the washer is not available and the dryer is effectively useless to me?
A: Under Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act, a landlord must keep the rental property in a good state of repair and fit for habitation. That includes facilities provided to tenants like the washing machine in your laundry room. When a necessary repair is brought to the landlord’s attention, they are required to fix the problem within a reasonable period of time.
From your question, it seems the landlord is already aware of the broken washer and is working toward obtaining a replacement machine. But it is reasonable for you to ask the landlord when the new machine will be installed and operational.
Where a landlord is working reasonably quickly to remedy the situation, they are not required to provide you with an alternative solution or a rent abatement during the time a machine is out of service. A service discontinuance that is remedied in a reasonable period of time will not generate a rent abatement.
If the sole problem with the machine is the need to fix the laundry coin box, one would expect that it could be done within a few days. But the issue may be bigger than just the coin box. The washing machine may have reached the end of its lifespan, or there may be other larger issues to fix; for instance, thieves will sometimes damage the electrical box. If that is the case, it likely makes sense to change the machines, which could add additional delay.
On the bright side, your landlord switching from coin-operated to coinless machines may turn out better for everyone. The new machines are likely to be more energy and water efficient, and to have other practical benefits, such as no longer forcing you to keep coins on hand and having contactless payment.
Some state-of-the-art laundry machines even have smartphone applications where tenants can seamlessly load money through their phone, and process payment without the need to bring cards or cash to the laundry room. Some of the apps send a message when the machine has finished its cycle, which will make for less wasted time while waiting for other users of the machines to remove their laundry from either the washer or the dryer.