Q: I live in a market-rate rental on the Upper West Side. My refrigerator has broken several times over the past few months, despite repeat visits from repairmen. We’ve had to throw out spoiled food and devote too much money to takeout. We asked the landlord for a new fridge, but he refuses to replace it unless we agree to a $17-a-month rent increase for the remainder of the lease. He claims that New York City law requires tenants to pay for new appliances. Is this really the case?

A: There is no city law requiring tenants to pay for new appliances if their old ones break. On the contrary, the warranty of habitability, a state law, requires your landlord to provide you with a safe, livable and clean apartment, which would include a functioning refrigerator.

So he must either fix your broken one or replace it with one that works. The replacement does not need to be new, but it must be similar or better than the one you had before. Unless your lease states otherwise, your landlord cannot charge you for this. It is his responsibility.

So where did your landlord get the idea that you should shoulder the cost? He may be referring to the state’s rent stabilization code, which allows a landlord to pass the cost of apartment improvements onto a rent-stabilized tenant as a rent increase if the tenant gives written consent, according to Peter A. Schwartz, head of the real estate practice at the Manhattan law firm Graubard Miller. But since your lease is market rate, the rule does not apply to you. (And even if your apartment were stabilized, you would still have to consent in writing to a rent increase.)