Imagine living in a rental unit where a washer and dryer are included. If they kept breaking, would you complain to the landlord or simply find somewhere else to do your laundry, like a laundromat?

In this story, one man is in this exact situation, and he’s a bit of a pushover. But his girlfriend is not. She makes sure the landlord realizes how important it is to get the washer and dryer fixed right away.

Keep reading to see how she did it.

Not so handy Landlord Won’t Properly Fix Washing Machine and Dryer

About 20 years ago and I was dating the man I would later marry.

He had an apartment that was a quad but wasn’t surrounded by the best neighbors. It was sold, but he was kept on as a tenant by the new landlord.

He wasn’t a bad landlord per se, but he fancied himself a handyman. And he was cheap.

He tried to fix the washer and dryer.

So the washer and dryer (included in the rental) both break, and the landlord comes in to fix my boyfriend’s set up.

It works, but only temporarily, and they keep breaking, over and over again. It goes on for months.

Boyfriend (who is a model tenant) finally complains lightly, saying that he’s been going over to his mom’s to do laundry, but sometimes he has to do it late, so he’s been having to spend money at the laundromat.

The landlord says that my boyfriend can bill him for the laundry, and the landlord will reimburse if things break down again and to make sure it’s all documented by time, date, and amount. Then the landlord says he’s going to take a look at it right now, confident, somehow, in the skills that he hasn’t shown.

This isn’t a surprise.

They broke again.

I’m far less tolerant about these things, but my SO doesn’t like to be any trouble to anyone. Still, he’s really tired of not being able to do his laundry at home, but thought it was really good of the landlord to offer to pay for his quarters at the laundromat.

Bless his heart and cue Malicious Compliance.

This problem has gone on for 6 months, and I’m going to be solving it.

She has a better idea than a laundromat.

I tell my boyfriend that he’ll then have to keep track of the quarters he spends, by date time and amount, and since there’s no receipt, they might have to fight it out over the amount. And I just know he hates conflict.

Plus, there’s the time and gas he spends, which, while he could bill for it, any lawyer would argue that he would have spent time awaiting his laundry anyway at home.

I tell him to send his laundry out for service because a service provides receipts.

“But won’t that be expensive?” he asks.

She told him exactly what they were going to do.

I grin inwardly and say: “It might be, but it’s the only way to provide adequate documentation he’s asking for. You can’t prove what you spent at a laundromat. But you can with a laundry service. You’ll include a copy of the bills with your rent, and a note saying that you’ve subtracted the amount that it cost to do your laundry this month, as a washer and dryer has been included in the rental agreement and hasn’t been working consistently properly for six months. Since there isn’t documentation for the last six months, of course, we won’t be retroactively billing him. Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ll write the note, and I will be SURE to thank him for providing this in lieu of getting it fixed. It really is nice of him.”

“Ok,” he says, “that sounds good, but how do you even arrange for that? I know dry cleaning, but this is just laundry.”

“I’ll take care of the details, no problem,” I reply.

She made sure he got all of his laundry done.

They charged by the pound and load, so I made sure to also include all the stuff he had put off washing since it wasn’t a top priority. He’d only been doing the essentials for fear one or the other would break mid-cycle, and because he felt he was taking advantage of his mother.

And boy howdy, it really WAS expensive having a laundry service do all his laundry.

I arranged for regular pick up and drop off that was convenient for my SO.

They even folded his underwear.

The landlord took notice.

The rent check he handed over was substantially lighter by more than $200.

But all receipt copies did have the time, date and amount.

Faced with the prospect of such a “bill” each month, the landlord scheduled an actual repairman to fix the machines one day after rent was handed over.

She had a brilliant idea that actually got the landlord’s attention. That was very well played indeed!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person explains why her actions worked in their favor.

Another person knows how great laundry service can be.

Here’s some praise for the landlord.

This person talks like a lawyer.

There’s nothing that makes someone take action like being handed a big bill!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.