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Hypothetical: A single person rents a home, and it is specified in their lease that as the tenant, they are responsible for repairs and maintenance.

The dishwasher breaks down. Since this person usually washes their few dishes by hand and does not use the dishwasher much, they decide not to fix it.

Are they liable for repairs to the dishwasher when the lease is over?

[The question is not dishwasher-specific, it just used as an example. If it matters, the reason for not fixing something could be inability to find a contractor or lack of funds to do so.

Also for hypothetical's sake, let's assume there is no clause in the lease that defines any item's expected condition before or after the lease term.]

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    Don't sign a lease like that. What if the AC breaks down. It could be thousands.
    – paparazzo
    Commented Sep 24, 2018 at 17:56
  • In which country/state? In some countries (e.g. New Zealand) such clause will be unenforceable.
    – Greendrake
    Commented Sep 24, 2018 at 23:07
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    If you live in the US, and you do have something related to Arizona tagged in your profile, I would mention many, if not a majority, of states have statutes that void provisions like this in a lease. Just because it is in your lease does not necessarily mean a court will honor/enforce it.
    – David Reed
    Commented Sep 25, 2018 at 2:33
  • I've added the location (Arizona, US) to the tags, thank you. The question of enforce-ability is a good one and might also affect a related question I have open (if I'm allowed to link to it here) link. To note: this is related to a friend's lease & the hell she went through has made me madly curious about some of the requirements like this, hence my questions. I've never seen some of them, ever. She's beyond any answers being helpful at this point so it's just my curiosity being satisfied.
    – dei gratia regina
    Commented Sep 25, 2018 at 6:02

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Are they liable for repairs to the dishwasher when the lease is over?

Yes, but that is because of the presumption that the proximate cause for the dishwasher breaking is its usage by the tenant or tenant's household.

To overcome liability, the tenant would have to prove that the dishwasher broke prior to the start of the lease.

If it matters, the reason for not fixing something could be inability to find a contractor or lack of funds to do so.

That does not matter, unless any such exceptions are contemplated in the language of the contract.

let's assume there is no clause in the lease that defines any item's expected condition before or after the lease term

In that case, the default expectation (and presumption) is that everything works fine before the lease, and the expectation is that everything will work fine at the end of the lease.

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