When do you give rent credit to tenant?

[James Kim]

Hi,

I was curious when any of you as landlord have given credit on rent to tenants? Would a situation where an appliance fails and repairs take too long (even though you acted asap to get it repaired) warrant a credit? Would inconvenience to the tenant in any way warrant one?

I'm not a fan of it unless it was something the landlord just sat on and didn't deal with it in reasonably quick time. But was interested to know when you might have given one.

thanks!

James

[Nathan Gesner]

With thousands of tenants over the years, I can't recall a time that we credited rent back to the tenant. We have put tenants up in a hotel or vacation rental for a few nights due to a fire or flood, but we didn't refund their rent. It would have to be a pretty egregious issue before I would even consider it. 

When an appliance breaks in my home, I have to live without that appliance. Same goes for my tenants. And what is the value of an appliance in the big scheme of things? For a $2,000 rental, daily prorated rent is $66. If the refrigerator stops working, that's maybe 5% of the value of the home (on the high end) or $3.30 per day. Why would a Landlord give them a day of free rent for a bad appliance when the other 95% of the rental is fully functional?