Question ab dealing with a tenant

[Mary Jay]

Hi guys,

can you please help me out?

I have a tenant, she lives in one of my properties out of state (in Florida). I had to repair a roof leak+stucco, which cost me 5K this month, plus the dry wall with some mold on it from the leak, which is another $500, so 6K this month total.

The tenant kept saying that her AC bill is super high ($650 per month during summer, its  3 story house and the ac is only 2 years old), so I promised her I will buy her one portable ac unit, which is about $300-400

Then the AC leaked and I had an ac guy come in and he said the repair will be about $850 (so that is in addition to 5.5K this month) The Ac guy also said the coil needs to be cleaned and the ac filter is filthy. The tenant is stating that she changes ac filters twice a month. The AC company says: "No way she is doing that" and the AC company is saying that why the AC bill is so high, because the AC keeps running non stop. They say even if she changes it twice a month the house is  filthy so may be that is what also makes the ac filter dirty

I probably could afford to buy a portable ac unit but I feel like, why should I do it for her when I just spent $850 on cleaning the AC

The tenant is a section 8 tenant, and I am charging only $1500 per month, while a fair rent market value is probably between 2.5-3K. I know I should of increased it, but she has been with me for about 5 years and I was not ready to deal with a tenant change this year because I had to sell 2 other properties and do 1031 exchange. So my plate was pretty full, so I could not really deal with having a 3rd tenant move out and have 3 empty houses at the same time so I just renewed the lease with her.

I definitely will be increasing the rent in the spring and she probably wont be able to afford it so she probably will have to move

but the question now is: I promised her that I would buy that portable AC unit, but now, since the AC leaked and I had to spend $850 to clean it, am I obligated to buy that portable AC unit?

Can I just say: Sorry, I just spent $850 on cleaning the AC, so I wont be able to keep my word and buy an a portable ac?

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Mary Jay:

Hi guys,

can you please help me out?

I have a tenant, she lives in one of my properties out of state (in Florida). I had to repair a roof leak+stucco, which cost me 5K this month, plus the dry wall with some mold on it from the leak, which is another $500, so 6K this month total.

The tenant kept saying that her AC bill is super high ($650 per month during summer, its  3 story house and the ac is only 2 years old), so I promised her I will buy her one portable ac unit, which is about $300-400

Then the AC leaked and I had an ac guy come in and he said the repair will be about $850 (so that is in addition to 5.5K this month) The Ac guy also said the coil needs to be cleaned and the ac filter is filthy. The tenant is stating that she changes ac filters twice a month. The AC company says: "No way she is doing that" and the AC company is saying that why the AC bill is so high, because the AC keeps running non stop. They say even if she changes it twice a month the house is  filthy so may be that is what also makes the ac filter dirty

I probably could afford to buy a portable ac unit but I feel like, why should I do it for her when I just spent $850 on cleaning the AC

The tenant is a section 8 tenant, and I am charging only $1500 per month, while a fair rent market value is probably between 2.5-3K. I know I should of increased it, but she has been with me for about 5 years and I was not ready to deal with a tenant change this year because I had to sell 2 other properties and do 1031 exchange. So my plate was pretty full, so I could not really deal with having a 3rd tenant move out and have 3 empty houses at the same time so I just renewed the lease with her.

I definitely will be increasing the rent in the spring and she probably wont be able to afford it so she probably will have to move

but the question now is: I promised her that I would buy that portable AC unit, but now, since the AC leaked and I had to spend $850 to clean it, am I obligated to buy that portable AC unit?

Can I just say: Sorry, I just spent $850 on cleaning the AC, so I wont be able to keep my word and buy an a portable ac?

Do you have a written agreement promising to purchase an A/C unit? No. You can absolutely change your mind.

You're showing a pattern of bad decisions that are going to prevent you from being successful. The rent is so low you're losing $6,000 - $12,000 per year just so you can keep a tenant that's not taking care of the property but you've left her there for five years? The A/C professional tells you she's not using the A/C properly, but you aren't doing anything about it and are actually considering spending even more to make her more comfortable?

If I were you, I would tell her you can't afford to spend another dime on her and that you intend to get rid of her as quickly as possible. Once she's out, clean the place up and hand it over to a professional for management. A manager will cost you 10% of the income, but they'll make sure it's rented at market rate so you'll still make thousands more every year.