The Fridge Was Still Cold, Just Not Cold Enough: A Silent Rental Failure Worth Knowing About

The call I remember most was not about a fridge that had stopped working. It was about food. The tenant rang because things kept spoiling faster than they should, milk turning, meat going off a day or two early, and at first neither of us thought to blame the fridge, because the fridge was still cold. It was only after enough of it happened that they thought to actually check the temperature, and it turned out to be sitting somewhere between eight and ten degrees. Cold enough to fool anyone standing in front of the open door. Nowhere near cold enough to keep food safe. I ended up replacing the whole unit.

For me that was an unplanned bill and a trip to buy a replacement fridge. For the tenant it was every meal they had bought that week, thrown out, and a stretch of not trusting the one appliance a household depends on more than almost anything else. Both of those are real costs, they are not the same kind of cost, and it is worth sitting with that before getting to who pays for what.

Why a Failing Fridge Is Harder to Catch Than It Sounds

A fridge that stops entirely is obvious within a day, warm to the touch, condensation, a smell. A fridge that is drifting warmer but still running is not obvious at all, because the compressor is still working, the light still comes on, the inside still feels cool compared to the kitchen. The only way anyone actually notices is the symptom, not the cause: food spoiling faster than it should. By the time that pattern is clear enough to suspect the fridge itself, it has usually been running warm for a while.

New Zealand Food Safety (MPI) is specific about the numbers here, and they are worth knowing exactly rather than roughly. A fridge should run between 2 and 5 degrees Celsius. MPI names 5 to 60 degrees Celsius as the danger zone where bacteria multiply fastest. A fridge sitting at eight to ten degrees is not "a bit warm", it is inside that danger zone, which is the actual difference between an appliance that is merely underperforming and one that has become a food-safety problem. A cheap fridge thermometer left on a middle shelf is the only reliable way to know which one you are dealing with, since touch and appearance tell you almost nothing.

Who Pays for a Fridge That Has Failed?

If you supplied the fridge as a chattel with the tenancy, you are responsible for repairing or replacing it when it fails through fair wear and tear, the same obligation that covers a washing machine or dishwasher. This is not a repair the tenant is expected to fund or fix themselves, and it is not optional once you know about it, since it is a food-safety issue, not a convenience one.

Replacement does not have to mean an upgrade. The general position is like-for-like: if the tenancy came with a standard fridge-freezer, you can replace it with an equivalent one rather than a larger or more expensive model, though a downgrade in capacity or features is a fair point for a tenant to raise if it meaningfully reduces what the tenancy provides. Keep the receipt and the make/model of whatever you install, since it becomes the baseline for the next time this comes up.

What to Actually Do

• If a tenant reports spoiling food with no obvious cause, treat "check the fridge temperature" as the first troubleshooting step, not the last one. A five-dollar thermometer answers the question in a day.
• Do not wait on a fridge issue the way you might wait on a cosmetic repair. This sits closer to urgent than routine, because every day it runs warm is another day of food loss and a genuine health risk, not merely an inconvenience.
• Once replaced, a quick note in the tenancy file with the date, the reading that prompted it, and the replacement details closes the loop if it is ever asked about again, at bond time or otherwise.

Common questions

What temperature counts as a fridge failure?

A fridge should run between 2 and 5 degrees Celsius. MPI names 5 to 60 degrees Celsius as the food-safety danger zone where bacteria multiply fastest, so a fridge sitting at 8 to 10 degrees is still cold to the touch but inside that danger zone. A cheap fridge thermometer left on a middle shelf is the only reliable way to know, since touch and appearance tell you almost nothing.

Who pays to repair or replace a failing fridge?

If you supplied the fridge as a chattel with the tenancy, you are responsible for repairing or replacing it when it fails through fair wear and tear, the same obligation that covers a washing machine or dishwasher. This is not something the tenant is expected to fund or fix themselves, and it is not optional once you know about it, since it is a food-safety issue.

What should I do if a tenant reports spoiling food?

Treat checking the fridge temperature as the first troubleshooting step, not the last one - a cheap thermometer answers the question in a day. Do not wait on it the way you might wait on a cosmetic repair; this sits closer to urgent than routine, because every day it runs warm is another day of food loss and a genuine health risk.

RentManager keeps that kind of maintenance record, the report date, what was found, what was replaced, attached to the property, so if the same appliance ever raises a question again, the history is already there instead of relying on anyone's memory of a call from a while back.