Los Angeles ends strange rite of passage with new fridge law
Unlike most of the country, Los Angeles renters were often responsible for buying and installing their own refrigerators — and removing them when they leave.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed a new state law in October mandating landlords supply tenants with a working stove and refrigerator starting Jan. 1, it marked the end of a bizarre rite of passage for many moving to Los Angeles.
Unlike most of the country, or even many other cities in California, Los Angeles renters are often responsible for buying and installing their own refrigerators — and removing them when they leave.
This has led to a robust network of used appliance shops, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace ads, under the table swaps between incoming and outgoing renters, landlords who rent fridges by the month and Reddit queries like, “Quick question: do LA apartments not come with refrigerators?!!.”
There’s a long-standing joke that many Angelenos own their refrigerators but not their own homes.
“It’s weird,” said Greg Estrada, a sales representative with The Appliance & Mattress Depot in Santa Ana, just south of Los Angeles County.
Shocked is the word Alex Buckley has used. Buckley, 24, arrived in Los Angeles from Boston in 2024 to take a job as a production assistant. Then he went on a grocery run with his sister, who was there helping him move in.
“She was holding a jug of milk,” said Buckley, “and she’s like, ‘Where’s your fridge?’ I was like huh? Where is the fridge?”
With a pile of meat warming on the floor, he jumped in the car, went to the closest Home Depot and bought the cheapest “real” fridge he could find, Buckley said.
The one he ended up with was just 5 feet tall, yet still cost around $200.
Larry Gross, executive director for the Coalition for Economic Survival, a tenants rights organization, said research showed that in Los Angeles rent is already at 50% of income for many people, and some renters go without fridges at all. Others buy very old or malfunctioning models, he said, which can cost renters even more in the long run if it means spending more money on takeout, replacing spoiled food or the extra electricity used by an inefficient older machine.
Even good-quality, affordable used models are several hundred dollars. Marsha Stonecipher, whose family has run Savon Appliance in nearby Burbank for 45 years, said that the shop specialized in refurbished models of all vintages. She has sold a lot of basic top-freezer refrigerators for around $350.
When Violet Hopkins moved to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Glendale from Brooklyn 25 years ago, she was lucky enough to find a spacious beige fridge for free, from a woman her brother knew.
Even so, it came at a cost.
The woman kept Ms. Hopkins, 52, for an hour and a half before releasing the refrigerator. She showed off her art collection, asked about Ms. Hopkins’ religious beliefs, cooed to an ancient pet rabbit, and even took a shower after the rabbit urinated in her lap.
It was worth it, said Ms. Hopkins. “I had that fridge for a very long time.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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