damaged laundry and landlords

fightinfilipino

my apartment building has a set of washing and drying machines in the basement, and they've worked spottily at best. at the end of last week, i washed a load of clothes like i would normally. however, when i pulled the clothes from the washer, i noticed that half of that load had large stains on them, as if they had been bleached in those areas. the clothes' normal dye was gone in those spots and instead looked like giant streaks/spots of really dull, light red. basically, the clothes are not useful for work or normal wear. at best they're now work clothes and/or cloth rags. i think i lost about $125 worth in that wash.

i have renters' insurance, but unfortunately something like this isn't covered by the insurance. do i have a good chance seeking some kind of compensation from my landlord? he's been pretty negligent in maintaining these machines overall; they keep breaking down around every two weeks, and i think he just doesn't want to replace them. anyone ever run into this kind of situation before?

Midshipman

I'd doubt you'd have any easy way to collect damages on clothes, even if you are entitled to them. Probably the best thing to do would be to contact the landlord, tell him about the problem, and then document his response. It might turn out to be handy later when you move out if he's being stubborn about returning your deposit if you can offer documentation of his general negligence in upkeep of the building.

Deadfall

I'm no laundry expert, but I don't think it's the washer that ruined your clothes. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that either:

a)You added some kind of bleach

or

b)There was residual bleach from a previous washer.

Again, I could be wrong, but I don't think you can get any sort of compensation from your landlord. My apartment's washing machine and dryer even have a sign on it saying the usual "property owner not responsible for damaged clothes, blah blah."

amateurhour

Deadfall wrote: »

I'm no laundry expert, but I don't think it's the washer that ruined your clothes. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that either:

a)You added some kind of bleach

or

b)There was residual bleach from a previous washer.

Again, I could be wrong, but I don't think you can get any sort of compensation from your landlord. My apartment's washing machine and dryer even have a sign on it saying the usual "property owner not responsible for damaged clothes, blah blah."

This

The dryer can give heat burns, and the washer could rust and stain clothes, but the light spots were caused by bleach which was either something you did or the guy before you did, and it's not the fault of the laundromat/apartment owner.

Eat_Fire

As far as compensation most laundry mats and self service laundries have disclaimers hung saying "not responsible yaddayaddayadda" So your chances are unlikely of compensation.


Also as the others say it sounds like your laundry was bleached. Another possibility is if you spilled Hydrogen Peroxide from cleaning something on your clothes it could cause something like that as well.

Erandus

Also possible some jackass just dumped some bleach in your laundry. Is your building/laundry area secure?

FF

Someone bleached/dyed something in the washing machine before you put your stuff in. My guess is that your landlord may even have something in your rental agreement to the effect of "we are not responsible for lost/damaged clothes washed in the buildings facilities. Maybe see if you can track down who used the machine before you?

This is why you get yelled at if you try and do that shit in a laundry mat. (Sorry, just watched Pecker)

amateurhour

FF wrote: »

Someone bleached/dyed something in the washing machine before you put your stuff in. My guess is that your landlord may even have something in your rental agreement to the effect of "we are not responsible for lost/damaged clothes washed in the buildings facilities. Maybe see if you can track down who used the machine before you?

This is why you get yelled at if you try and do that shit in a laundry mat. (Sorry, just watched Pecker)

Even if he could track the guy before him down, it's not his problem unless he's rich and feels like buying the OP new clothes.

FF

amateurhour wrote: »

FF wrote: »

Someone bleached/dyed something in the washing machine before you put your stuff in. My guess is that your landlord may even have something in your rental agreement to the effect of "we are not responsible for lost/damaged clothes washed in the buildings facilities. Maybe see if you can track down who used the machine before you?

This is why you get yelled at if you try and do that shit in a laundry mat. (Sorry, just watched Pecker)

Even if he could track the guy before him down, it's not his problem unless he's rich and feels like buying the OP new clothes.

Oh totally. I don't think he'd actually get money from the person, but maybe a warning like, "Hey, you probably shouldn't put so much bleach in the washing machine again, someone less nice than me might get really pissed at you about it."