In the episode where Lucy helps Fred buy a birthday present for Ethel, Lucy mentions to Fred that her faucet has been leaking for 4.5 months. He says he'll get to it when he has time. Most of the scenes with Fred have him in a tie. Why in the heck would a retired landlord spend most of his time in a tie. What was he doing that he was so busy he couldn't fix a leaky faucet.

Fred did have more than one unit to tend to, so that could be one reason. The other is he was lazy, as for the tie all the guys on TV in the 50's wore a tie.

fred was a pretty cheap & lazy landlord. lol. he was always complaining about having to fix or replace things in the apartment and he always said "i'll get around to it" to fixing things. lol. i would've moved out if my landlord was like that.

And of course he's cheap. Maybe he would have had to pay for some parts too, but I do think laziness was most of it.

i would've moved out if my landlord was like that.

Me too! But, Lucy was often late with the rent so that (and her friendship with the Mertzes) probably made her more tolerable to Fred's laziness.

Cheap & lazy sound like the main reasons he took his time fixing things. The tie wearing is a little odd, but I guess he wanted to look professional when he went in all the apartments.

I'd say cheap and lazy as well. Today, I believe a tennant can hold back rent for major things not being repaired, such as heat and water! There is a legal term for it, but I can't recall it at the moment.