I recently received a letter from my landlord stating that my roommate and I owed $100 for the repair of a messed up dishwasher. We had been calling them for 3 or 4 weeks now trying to get them to repair our dishwasher and they just recently replaced the motor. The letter said that glass was found inside the motor and this was the cause of the damage. From everyone I've talked with, this is a bogus excuse for them to pass the bill on to us. Also, the damage couldn't have possibly been caused by us and was obviously done by the previous tenants. We've been renting for 4 months now but for the first 3 were not even at the apartment (stuck in a full year lease @ college, we both lived @ home over the summer). So basically, since we've lived there, the dishwasher never really worked and they're blaming damage on us when we've only successfully used the machine 3 or 4 times and surely haven't shattered any dishes in there.

My question: Do I have to pay this? According to Wisconsin renter's laws I've decided they should be responsible to pay because they implied and/or agreed to provide it as part of the apartment so they are responsible for it being in reasonable working condition, which it wasn't. They also cannot prove the damage was caused by neglect by my roommate an I (it never worked in the first place). My only fear is they'll take it out of our security deposits and it's too small an amount to go to small claims court.

If you had reported it when you first took possession of the apartment, you would have a much better case. I understand that you weren't living there when you first leased the apartment, but it does kind of muddy the waters. It's not really the landlord's fault or responsibility that you didn't live there for 3 months, and they have to draw the line somewhere, or people could come back after any period and claim, "I haven't been using the "___(fill in the blank)___", so it must have been the previous tenant who broke it. And the broken glass isn't a far stretch. I've had dishwashers with everything from broken glass to straws to chopsticks... you name it.

If you do nothing, as you surmised, they'll just wind up taking it off your deposit whenever you do move out.

What's the landlord situation? Is it an individual or a management company? Do they know that you weren't living there over the summer? And was it vacant over the summer, or did you have someone staying there?

I think all you can do is talk to them at this point. You can either just verbally try to talk it out with them, or you can send them a written statement (typically a better idea). Make SURE that if you get them to agree to anything that you definitely get it in writing.

Finally, if the dishwasher motor went out due to age, hard water, etc. then yes, that's definitely the landlord's responsibility. When a foreign object gets jammed in there, then it's no longer just a routine maintenance issue.

This is a problem, since they are saying you owe it, and you are saying no, in court they will have to prove their case, but that may not happen till you move out and they hold it from your deposit