Renter takes end of lease clean to the extreme ‘taking $2000 in appliances’

A renter in the UK has allegedly taken an end of lease clean to the extreme after moving out with $2000 worth of appliances that weren’t hers.

The tenant, known only as Katie, is said to have taken the fridge, washer and dishwasher when she moved out of her rental property. 

The problem is, the appliances weren’t ever hers, but belonged with the home.

Jack Rooke, a UK property expert, revealed the details of the awkward exchange in a video to his TikTok account.

The story goes, Katie sent her landlord a text message informing them she had moved out and left the keys. 

Yet, when the landlord went to inspect the property, they found key items missing.

Rooke did not reveal any information about the location of the property.

“Hi Katie, just been to the property where’s the fridge?” Rooke said in a now viral video.

He then shared the renter’s reply.

“Oh, I took it. Same with the washer and the dishwasher,” Rooke said, quoting Katie’s message.

Aghast, the landlord replied informing Katie that the appliances weren’t hers to take but rather part of the property..

As Rooke shared, Katie didn’t seem too phased.

“Yeah but I used them every day. I assumed they were mine?” he quoted her as replying.

The landlord then reminded Katie that the appliances were “listed on the inventory”, a document she signed. He then asked her to return the items.

It didn’t go down well.

“That’s a bit awkward now. They’re already in my new place,” Rooke said, reading from the text message exchange.

As for the landlord’s reply?

“Then you need to bring them back. They don’t belong to you,” Rooke said, quoting the message.

The renter showed little intent of backing down.

“I genuinely thought they did. Like, I used them. They felt like mine,” Rooke said, quoting her.

The landlord took another tact.

“Katie, you’ve taken items worth over a grand. This isn’t a grey area,” Rooke quoted the reply.

At this point, Katie attempted to reason with the landlord.

“Can’t you just claim it on insurance or something? I’m not trying to cause drama,” she wrote.

The landlord held firm. 

“If I don’t have them back by Friday. I’ll have to treat it as theft. This is serious,” they wrote.

It was Katie’s turn to change tact.

“Wow. Over a few appliances? Bit extreme, don’t you think?” she wrote.

At this point, Rooke took a moment of pause, before interjecting.

“No, I don’t think that’s a bit extreme. She’s just robbed him,” he added.

The video, which has been viewed more than 900,000 times, attracted scores of comments, many of them reluctantly siding with the landlord.

“Not every day where I side with the landlord,” one person wrote.

“Dammit Katie, you’re making me agree with a landlord here,” a second person wrote.

“Hate to agree with a landlord but “I used them everyday” is a terrible argument? Did you buy them? Did you take the floor? the walls? the lights?” yet another person shared.

The video is part of a regular series shared by Rooke called Most Toxic Tenancies. This was number 52 in the series.

Rooke has previously shared accounts of a landlord allegedly slugging a tenant with an extra fee for letting his girlfriend stay over.

He’s also shared how one landlord allegedly installed a coin operated shower in a rental property.