Why you might want to think twice about sneaking in an illegal washer/dryer

By Leah Hochbaum Rosner | April 1, 2015 - 2:15PM

In Case You Missed It: Every so often, BrickUnderground digs through the archives to find the best advice our experts have shared through the years.

Think your landlord is just plain mean denying your request for in-unit laundry? He’s not. He’s just trying to dodge inevitable (and expensive) water damage to your unit. Here’s what happened when one intrepid New Yorker decided to ignore her building management’s rules and install an illegal washer-dryer in her apartment:

10 small kitchen floods while trying to hook the thing up.
A broken wheel that almost caused the machine to topple over onto her and her dog.
Kitchen tiles that were severely damaged after a year of the appliance spinning and moving with each wash cycle.
Water damage that caused a black, goopy substance to ooze from between the cracks in her kitchen tiles.
The need to hide the 300-pound behemoth under a blanket whenever maintenance workers entered the apartment.

For more, read “Inside Story: My Illegal Washer-Dryer.”

Breaking the laws of NYC real estate—and what it’ll cost you

How to put a washer-dryer in your NYC co-op (or condo)

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