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WWYD? Flat lacking items
We've just moved flats and have found that quite a few fairly basic items are missing. These include, to give you an idea: no sharp cutting knife (only butter knives provided), no can opener, no spatula, no waste bins, no toaster and no electric kettle.
All of these things have been provided in previous flats (in London). This is the first time my flat has been let (the owners recently moved out) so I'm thinking that perhaps they may have forgotten a few things.
However, I don't really want to start a tit-for-tat kind of relationship. Would you mention to your landlord that you've had to purchase quite a few basic items? More specialty items, like some coffee equipment and a garlic press, etc, we are fine paying for, but it seems like the other things should have been provided. WWYD?
Re: WWYD? Flat lacking items
You only work through the letting agency on managed flats here. We had an inventory on move in, but that only provides a list of what is actually there, not items that are needed.
As I said, these items were all included in two previous flats I've let in London, so I suppose I've come to expect them. But perhaps my first two flats were not representative?
I'm not in London but in the UK and both flats we rented came with a random assortment of junk and were missing basic items. our current flat didn't come with any kitchen furniture (just a giant empty kitchen). Our friends flat didn't come with a single chair... there are some pretty amusing stories.
Basically, whatever you buy is yours so you just take it to your next flat. We had to get flatware (it came with like 3 forks and 5 knives or something), and tons of other stuff. So yes, I think your first flats were really lovely and you were really lucky!
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Interesting. Sounds like I got a bit spoiled, eh? I'll go for that stiff upper lip thing.
And I figure, when we leave this flat (to go back to the States, most likely) I can always try to sell the extra items we've bought to the landlord.
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I believe I've mentioned on here that non-furnished German apartments often don't come with a kitchen and pretty much never with light fixtures, so, yeah, no silverware either, let alone spatulas. I'd say spoiled rotten
No, but seriously, if it's normal where you live to have all of that stuff when you rent, then you could casually mention it to the landlady or, as others suggested, just buy it and take it with you when you move again.
I think those items are only standard on short lease "vacation" or "corporate" flats. The idea being that everything you need is in the flat - and you pay a premium for this.
When we first arrived to London last year, we had a corporate flat for a month while we searched for a regular flat. The corporate flat came with all of that stuff. Our regular flat came furnished, but did not include such kitchen items.
For our regular flat, we purchased a few items from the outgoing tenant (tea kettle, toaster, microwave) and all of the rest from IKEA and Robert Dyas.
I would be 50:50 on this one...
If it was me, I would expect bins, a kettle and toaster to be in the place already. At least a bin in the kitchen. But other items like sharp knives, spatula and can opener I would think of as a bonus.
We moved out of our (owned) apartment last year into a rental house and there were no spatulas, sharp knives or can opener there. There was a kettle, toaster and bin (though that was built in!). But the kettle that was there was broken so it is sitting at the back of a cupboard for the last year and we bought a new one! (the first time we used it water leaked out of it!!!)
When we rented out our apartment we had it fully stocked with kettle, toaster (better than the one we ended up with in the house...), knives, and all kinds of kitchen stuff... my hubbie wouldn't let me take anything like that out!
The day after we moved to the house I paid a visit to Ikea with my sister...
You gotta be able to make a mug of tea... its a basic human right in my opinion!!!
Totally.
I saw this post title and wasn't thinking of flat as apartment and was so confused by what it meant. I was trying to think of what items could lack being flat. So strange.
Do all flats come with this type of stuff in London, or is it furnished apartments?
I'd go buy those things.
Our house is fully furnished and had everything we needed for the kitchen except for a couple of small things that we bought. We got our own toaster cause we didn't want some rando's used toaster and we got some new waste bins.
Generally just furnished apartments. When you rent an apartment owned by an individual they really aren't required to furnish anything as long as it's not in the rental agreement. If, for example, an elderly lady moves into a care home her children could decide to rent out the flat she was living in. They would probably leave a lot of the things in there because each respective child would already have one of everything themselves. But if a couple moves out of the flat and into a house, they will generally bring most things with them leaving the flat pretty much empty. The only things I expect in a rental are the major appliances.
Obviously I'm talking about non-furnished apartments - if you rent a furnished apartment everything should be provided.
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