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A tenant has revealed the extreme lengths he has been forced to go to in order to avoid being fined by his landlord.
For one night, every three months, Josh, a 21-year-old university student from the United Kingdom, sits in front of his refrigerator and waits. Sat in an armchair in front of an open freezer compartment, the ice-cold temperatures being emitted are tempered by the hairdryer Josh is holding in his hands, which blows hot air inside the kitchen appliance.
It's as bizarre a scene as you are ever likely to find, yet it's one Josh claims he finds himself in due to his landlord's exacting standards.
"Our landlord does semi-regular inspections of the house I'm sharing with four others," Josh told Newsweek. "During these inspections they check to see if there's any ice buildup in the freezer. If there is, it counts as a failed inspection."
He says that under the terms of the contract he and his roommates signed, this then results in a second inspection. If the landlord determines that the issues identified in the first inspection have not been fixed, they get hit with a fine of £60 ($75) for every inspection that follows.
It sounds almost too absurd to be true, were it not for the fact Josh last week had shared a video of himself to TikTok, under the handle @joshlunchbox, with the resulting clip accruing 1.7 million views and counting.
The video sparked disbelief among viewers. "Appliance maintenance is the landlords responsibility," one user wrote, with another commenting: "if it is something that was provided by them and they do not allow you to have your own then withhold all rent until it is fixed."
A third TikTok user urged Josh: "Please don't let him walk all over you because he's unwilling to do repairs."
Unfortunately, Josh, who asked not to be fully named, appears resigned to completing the task.
It's an understandable stance given the current situation facing private renters in the U.K. A 2023 YouGov poll of just over 2,000 U.K. renters for the housing charity Shelter, found those who had complained to their landlord, letting agent or local council about an issue in the last three years were 159 percent more likely to be handed an eviction notice than those who had not.
Josh said he has been inundated with TikTok users suggesting potentially easier ways of defrosting the freezer but they aren't viable.
"I can't just turn it off and let it defrost as we have frozen food and it's connected to the fridge above it so that would also go off," he explained to Newsweek. "The shelves can't be removed so I can't just take them out and hammer them etc. and the steam bucket method (placing a bowl of boiling hot water in the freezer) would also take too long. The only option is the faster hair dryer method."
Despite living in shared accommodation, Josh has taken sole responsibility for defrosting the freezer. "I know what to do. It usually takes about an hour of constant blowing," he said.
So, for now, despite his reservations, Josh is happy to just sit and wait.
"It is a bit annoying and tedious seeing that I also have to clean up all of the melted ice which floods most of the kitchen," he said. "But now that I've done it a few times I've learnt to make the process more enjoyable."
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About the writer
Jack Beresford is a Newsweek Senior Internet Culture & Trends Reporter, based in London, UK. His focus is reporting on ... Read more