Fridge nightmare has been going on since September 1st. Chicago, IL.
My partner and I (26/yr olds) moved into an apartment September 1st. We paid a non refundable deposit for cleaning of $650 (a supposed cleaning fee), only to realize that the apartment wasn't cleaned at all and had mold, water damage and a layer of grime that had built up from the previous tenant...this isn't the issue I'm on here about.
We went grocery shopping and put hundreds of dollars of food in our fridge, only to realize it didn't work properly. All of our food went bad. We contacted the landlord, and within a week, a handyman came out. The problem persisted and later they sent an actual fridge tech, who I was home to meet. He cracked open the fridge and revealed that there were BUGS in it. Stating it was a safety and sanitary issue that was in company policy to walk away from and not repair, he said we needed a new fridge. Our landlord got mad at him, saying it was a perfectly fine fridge, and I documented the bugs and grime within the appliance. After some waiting and more resisting on his end, he finally said we'd be getting a new fridge. Another week later, we had a brand new fridge delivered....but with a broken door. So the purpose of a fridge to keep your food cooled, still wasn't a reality, and we couldn't use it without losing more food.
Another week later, we got yet another new fridge, that worked good enough and thought that was the end of that.
Now, last night I get a call from the landlord (who has a thick accent) to hear that he wanted to drop off another fridge. I'm not entirely sure why, but he wanted to swap out fridges, he'd come take our new one on Thursday.
He shows with the handyman, they put in the fridge and tell us to wait until it's been vertical for a few hours before plugging it in (coolant or something, I'm not a fridge whisperer). This morning, after plugging it in to cool it so we can move our food over into a cooled fridge, I opened it only to realize it was THE ORIGINAL FRIDGE, STILL WITH BUGS AND GRIME IN IT.
I don't care if it works or not, it's unclean and has bugs in it. The fridge tech had told me to my face that the previous tenant had not taken care of it, and the bugs had infested it so bad that it stopped functioning properly.
We now have two fridges and I want nothing to do with the one we were given last night, so what do I do, and what are our rights as tenants in this situation?
Apartment is in Chicago, IL for reference, and it is with an actual landlord and not a large company.
TLDR: Landlord puts old (previously broken) fridge with bugs back into apartment. Chicago.