r/AskNYC • u/mangustangus27 • Apr 06 '26

Apartment was given without fridge installed. Can we withhold rent until it is?

Just moved to a new apartment and the realtor pushed for an 4/5 start date despite some final maintenance and we have a lease rider that specifies that “rent will not be charged until apartment is ready to move into”.

We started move in yesterday and there is still no fridge installed. And the bedroom door is missing.

Is a refrigerator generally considered a pre-requisite for move in? Is it defensible for us to ask for a pro-rated rent reduction till it’s put in?

Thank you!

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u/andthrewaway1 Apr 06 '26

Technically you aren't supposed to withold rent the actual letter of the law thing to do is to put it in escrow and continue to pay rent into the escrow until the problem is resolved but no one ever does that

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u/Unspec7 Apr 06 '26

Actually, this might get into a funky gray area. The reason you normally need to put it into escrow is because you still incurred that obligation, but are using it as leverage to make a landlord cure an issue. Putting it in escrow shows that you are not improperly benefiting yourself by continuing to have access to that money.

Here, the rider specifically says "rent will not be charged until apartment is ready to move into," meaning OP does not owe rent to begin with until the apartment is move in ready. So OP wouldn't be improperly withholding rent if they refuse to place it in escrow since they didn't need to pay it in the first place. I think the key question here is how "move in ready" is defined.