For those of you who have water filters in your refrigerators, do you replace them for free or charge the resident?

For those of you who have water filters in your refrigerators, do you replace them for free or charge the resident? TIA

Replace for free

Replace for free. It is part of the appliance.

Resident purchases and we will install. Ours are a bit pricy $50 at Home Depot. It’s also written into their lease that this is their responsibility

Laura Leigh Levy ik. My community is 131 units. It would have cost 13k a year to change out twice a year and to purchase from GE. That’s we we settled on once per year. Now that we have found them cheaper, we could probably change out twice, but residents are trained for once.

Free at renewal or they buy

Had them at my last community and we charged them for the filter not maintenance time or the could replace themselves. Residents were not happy about it. Its maintenance of the frig to me. Maybe offer at renewal.

Um, that should be a freebie for us to replace the water filter. They don’t own the fridge. It’s like us charging then to replace the bulbs in a microwave or the filters in a vent a hood

Our lease considers them “consumables” — things that get used up by the tenant’s use like light bulbs, filters, and batteries to ceiling fan remotes.

It’s a feature of the appliance but not affecting the function if they opt to dispense water unfiltered. The filtered water is consumable so it seems fair to me that residents pay for the replacement filters, not labor or maintenance fee to change out but actual filters (that get very pricey), yes. We provide toilet paper holders but not toilet paper too! Light fixtures but not never ending bulbs. ????

Nicole Malloy I never thought of the toilet paper analogy. We make sure there’s TP rolls on all holders at move-in, but never has a tenant asked us/expected us to replace their toilet paper.

Devin Campbell as a regional I have always encouraged managers and teams to charge for the filters but usually get lots of pushback. I have used that analogy to compare because no one would dream of putting in a work order for more TP ????

Nicole Malloy see, I don't understand that reasoning. (I'm in affordable so we don't get fancy). You're going to install a fridge with fancy features then blame the resident for using it? And may have used it as a selling point, then turn around and literally tell them "well if you use it you have to buy the ultra expensive filter because you can choose not to use it!"
It just doesn't make much sense to me.

We replace once per year for free. Our refrigerator filter light turns on every 6 months regardless of use. We reset light every other time.

Its funny. This question was just asked on another page I'm on, but that one is more geared towards single.family homes. I was the only one that answered owner responsibility for preventative maintenence costs. Im still not sure what the difference is. Its taking care of, and ensuring the life of the appliance.

We replace for free. We don’t charge for HVAC filters or smoke detector batteries either.

Free but those things are so pricy. $35 a pop on amazon or $50 a pop on HD Supply. We hit the reset button as many times as we’re able to until the resident catches on and we finally have to pull the trigger...

I think it depends on the lease. It could go either way, really. I’ve done both at properties over the years.

We charge $30

We buy one and then put the old one to a another unit using the new box to make them think it’s a new filter. We always get compliments on how the fresh water tastes so much better.

Resident have to supply them and we will put them in for them.

If you don’t charge for a/c filters, I wouldn’t charge .

Depends on what lease says, but I would think resident would be responsible

The fridge is yours, the maintenance is also yours!

They have become SO EXPENSIVE. We used to replace them for no charge but just started offering to replace them at renewal only because of the cost

I would think Management would replace it as that is something you all decided to put in, need to budget that cost.

New one should be part of the turn. After that, it should be their responsibility, if it is specified in the lease.

Who owns the refrigerator?
If the community owns it..then they MUST maintain it.. not the resident..

I disconnect the water supply line to the fridge.
It's a leak source that can destroy the subfloor.

Those who say..the residents choose to use the feature..also uses the switches and outlets..when they break..i guess you charge the residents..because they use them..

We have the tenant change them and when they move out they have to show the receipt of the new filters

Filters are generally supposed to last 6 months. As long as they're not being replaced significantly sooner than that, we do not charge.