its already an inconvenience not having w/d in unit and having to go outside your home to do laundry. its greed asfk, tenants already pay for rent, utilities, electric, gas, laundry detergent,etc. on top of having to keep up with the cost of laundry because they slickly raise the prices without notice.
Comments
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
lmao idk where u stay at but where i live it’s always included in ur unit. this used to be an issue for me in the city i used to stay at until i moved. ain’t no way in hell im paying for something i need.
And I don’t think I should have to pay taxes. Lol
Should the landlord also pay for your heat and electricity? Your phone and internet? Your food perhaps?
Tenants would end up losing money.
If they did not charge for washer and dryer, they would just cover the cost of the appliances and the electricity by raising rent. However, tenants would start abusing it (e.g. washing tiny loads because it was convenient). The result would be that the overall cost of the washers and dryers would be higher than current, so your rent would rise by a lot more than what you’re currently paying to wash your clothes. It’s lose-lose.
LOL any place that isn’t charging for laundry is just gonna build it into everyone’s rent. How do you think this works?
I used to be on board for a condo association.
It’s all for profit. They charge 100 condos $450 month for property maintenance such as landscaping , then hire a guy for $500 to landscape the entire property. When something goes wrong and they have to dish out $200K they send out a notice temporarily raising monthly fees until it pays for itself a year later.
Get a better apt
Laundry service is a commodity. If you don;’ like the landlord’s rate, launder somewhere else.
They frequently double dip too
You are paying for it anyways, either per use or through rent. Only way to avoid this problem is have it in the unit.
My parents once owned a duplex. There were washers/dryers in each unit. They kept having to replace/repair them because of overuse. They discovered that their tenants were letting all their friends use the washer/dryer because it was free. So I think the plan to have washers/dryers available for free would lead to it being taken advantage of.
My parents got fed up with the situation and eventually sold the duplex.
I hate to run devils advocate for landlords, but there IS an increased cost to landlords for having laundry hookups, not just in personal apartments, but just on the property sites in general.
Costs that not only include maintenance and repairs, but usually more expensively, insurance.
And this is only if they don’t include utilities in the rent. Because if they do, that’s even more cost to them.
Haha, I think making money is the point…
In my case, they contracted to a 3rd party, so they didn’t really have a say in it.
People would turn that into a I need crack business.
Just put the washer/dryer in unit. It then goes on the unit’s electric bill, and the individual unit occupants are responsible for not physically abuse it.
Otherwise, it will be abused. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
Tenants ran up water to 400 and electric to 700. riDICKulous
Happened in my friend’s place. A tenant massively abused it, like washing every set of clothes daily.
We thought they should put a nominal fee, like 25 cents, but the landlord went full pay.
For sort of the opposite effect, many college dorms don’t charge.
Apartments without w/d in the unit are cheaper than ones that have them. So up front, you are getting a discount by not having your own. But you end up paying anyway, with inconvenience, quarters, lack of privacy, weirdos stealing underpants, weirdos taking or moving your stuff when you’re not watching like a hawk. In the end, is it actually cheaper to not have your own? It’s subjective.
How much would you be willing to pay to not deal with all the stuff I listed above? You’d have to calculate the difference in cost between the 2 types of apartments and figure out if that difference is worth the lack or existence of that amount of inconvenience.
Being cheap can end up being expensive. Depends on perspective.
And I was ecstatic when I moved into a complex with a tenant laundry room.
The last one didn’t and I had to drive half way across town
I think everybody should just give me whatever I want because my life is hard enough as it is and I don’t feel like contributing anything of value.
fuck paying for laundry. I bought a key to the machine and do mine for free
Then go for the ones that come in the unit!
When I did live in apartments, I would go for the ones with full size stackable washer and dryers in them, because I HATE laundry rooms and laundromats!!!
I 1000% agree. In my opinion, a better option would be free washing and drying(or just free washing, so long as tenants are allowed to hang their clothes to dry) BUT tenants can purchase detergent and other laundry products with coins.
why not just buy your own washing mashine?
I live in an apartment now that charges $5.75 to wash and dry a load. I’m moving in a month to a place that has washer and dryer in unit and covers water that is bigger and rent is $200 less a month. You have to look at cost and amenities provided and do what’s best for you.
I will never live in a place again that doesn’t have washer and dryer in unit. I hate having worry about who else is doing laundry and messing up the dryers. So many crayons ruined military uniforms or my scrubs.
You don’t really give any meaningful reasons why the landlord should be responsible for the full cost of washing services.
In an ideal world, I’d agree. If you’re paying rent and utilities, you shouldn’t also have to pay to use the shit that the rent and utilities go towards.
But this isn’t an ideal world, and people fuckin’ suck. Machines get abused, broken, etc., all the time because humans are garbage. Even in complexes where the W&D are locked behind a tenant only access door, shit STILL gets destroyed.
I know it’s hard to grasp but if you owned a home you would still have to pay for a washer and dryer…. Not everything in life can be free…
Without the price control the demand would be too high. People would run smaller loads and the machines would never be available.
In practice they aren’t really using the market signal to control that but many complexes simply don’t have enough machines.
Once I realized my apartment was using speed queen machines I just bought a key online for $12 and had free laundry for like two years
But they were charging like $4 per dryer cycle
So a single person living in a complex subaidizes the laundry of somebody who has 5 people living there?
Landlords don’t buy property in order to provide a community service. They buy them to make money. That why it’s called “income property”. There are costs inherent in providing units for rent, and they are going to recover those costs from their tenants, one way or another. Want free laundry? Then pay higher rent. But the landlord isn’t going to assume the additional cost on your behalf.
Is it greedy? Of course it is! That’s how capitalism works!
I have lived in apartments my whole life and never payed to do laundry. Either the landlord put a washer and dryers in the apartment or there would be a shared laundry room. Paying to wash your own clothes is sad.
People suck is the reason why
I’ve stayed at one place with free washer/dryer, and some of the people living there started a laundry service and would camp there using every machine until about 2am every day
This isn’t even remotely unpopular
This isn’t unpopular…
I don’t even care if they charge – I just wish ours would take credit card or attach payment to some sort of card. It’s a pain in the butt to get quarters. No business around here trade them out, and many banks don’t want to give them to use unless you bank with them. Kind of annoying when I’m online bank only.
I personally would lose money every month.
It costs me $4.50 – $5 a week to do my laundry in the laundry room. So up to $20/month.
The apartments in my area offering in unit washer/dryer are *at least* $50 more per month in rent.
As much as I hate the inconvenience when I’m not well, $30/month adds up
at my old apartment some guy taught me the admin code, never paid for laundry again
My last apt had a washer and dryer already in the unit
I think charging for the machine usage is reasonable, but I’m pissed because my building recently raised the price from 1.50 to 2.50 a load
I would normally agree with this, but I actually think paid laundry ensures the building managers keep them working properly. If it’s “free”, they have no incentive to keep them running (and so they won’t)
What if your neighbor starts doing people’s laundry for money and monopolizes the laundry room? Should they get to do that for free?
don’t most modern apartments have a W/D inside the unit?
The issue with free laundry is if people who dont live there start bringing theirs in.
I think it’s weird that the door is locked and you need a key to get in, the same one you use to enter the bldg. That never made sense to me. There’s usually a maintenance closet in there but thats a key no tenant has unless they work for mgmt.
its a basic human need to have clean clothes and theyve capitalize on it
This isn’t about what landlords want… YOU do not want it to be free. Ideally cheap though.
If it’s free some asshole will do their entire extended family’s washing and drying. Some enterprising asshole will probably charge people and do their washing – again on your time and money.
Renters can be just as selfish and obnoxious as landlords sadly.
It’s almost like you can know this about the complex ahead of time and choose whether or not you’re going to live there.
The cost of installing and maintaining a laundry machine needs to be recouped somehow, that will either be per use or imputed into rent. I’m not sure why one is better than the other.
Having a fee encourages efficient use by the other people in the building. Not fun to have to wait more than you already have to.
That said, a landlord raising the fee for it mid-tenancy does seem like bullshit.
I live in disabled/retired housing so it’s a leg up on regular apartment living. But our washers are .75 for a regular load and .25 per 15 min on dryer. Maintenance keeps it low to encourage good hygiene. And they say that even at those prices they still make a small profit. After knowing that, It feels like most pay-laundry is a racket.
I wouldn’t mind being charged if they would just add it to the rent instead of making me have to use quarters.
Unless you bring your own washer/ dryer to connections you’ll pay an extra $50+ to use theirs.
Downvote because many people probably agree. Not an unpopular opinion
As someone who hates having to pay for it I have to defend it; they don’t need to have machines at all and it’s better to charge for them then not have anything at all. I do hear a lot of places ban portable machines and I do think that’s extreme when it forces people to pay for theirs but as long as they allow all options I don’t see anything wrong with charging for using theirs.
They’ll just pass the cost along in another way, likely through increased rent. And someone will try to find a way to abuse it.
Always try to find the money to pay up for a w/d in unit if possible.
Have had to pay for washing and drying where I live for years. I wouldn’t mind except the coin machine only accepts £1 coins and 20p coins. It’s going out of my way to make sure I have the correct change to wash my clothes in a society that is largely cashless, that I hate.
Wanting everyone thing to free is not only greedy af, it’s dumb af
Then.. get your own w/d unit?
You’re paying for it anyway.
Grow a pair and buy a house and move out.
You won’t do that though you’ll just continue to complain about shit like most apartment dwellers do.
Counterpoint: If there’s no charge, people will abuse it
I’ve mostly only had a washerdryer in my own unit. One apartment had the small washerdryer combo unit, the others were full-size.
We had a paid laundromat onsite at my first apartment, and I actually liked it because no one else EVER did laundry on Sunday night. So I’d use all the washers and dryers at once, and had the whole thing timed to the Fox Sunday line-up:
Divide the laundry just before The Simpsons comes on. When they cut to a commercial after the opening credits, take the dirty clothes to the machines just around the corner – BOOM! HOT! BOOM! WARM! BOOM COLD! ADD TIDE! ADD TIDE! ADD TIDE! PUT ON PROPER SETTINGS AND SLAM QUARTERS IN THE MACHINE THEN AGAIN, THEN AGAIN! During the first commercial break of King of the Hill, move the wet clothes to the dryers and SLAM QUARTERS IN THE MACHINES! The first commercial break of The X-Files? ADD MORE QUARTERS FOR ANOTHER CYCLE! My GF (I was doing washing for two) would always put out a blanket during the last break in The X-Files so I could just dump the hot clothes on the floor and we could fold them together and watch the last bit of whatever Mulder and Scully were up to that week. It was also fun in the winter because we’d lean against the sofa and pull the blanket to our laps, so the hot laundry would get all nice and toasty.
If its cheaper than the laundromat, then you don’t have a leg to stand on. “We pay for the electricity we use, what the hell dude!” FFS, lol.
Is this unpopular? Do people like paying for laundry service?
I agree with you. The problem is if they do it for free, some people will use the machines every single day with one or two items and every time you want to use the laundry, all of the machines will be full.
A large bucket of Tide pods lasts me like a year. When my last girlfriend lived with me, she would rip through the bucket in 2 weeks.
If one of your neighbors is unemployed, they could start a laundry wash and fold business and you won’t be able to use the machines at all.
I only charge $1/load in my building. And that’s just to cover the electricity costs. The tenants abuse it by letting other people that don’t live here come over and use the machines. I can’t image what it would be like if I didn’t change anything at all.
Be thankful that laundry room isn’t turned into a bachelor.
Amortize the cost of you buying a washer dryer.
Add the monthly extra for the extra square footage
And finally add the hot water and water bill.
Landlord ain’t getting rich of your dirty underwear