Credit Rent for Delayed Appliance Repair

[David Bray]

Looking for feedback on how property mangers respond to tenants request for credits for downtime on appliances.

A 5 year old washer went out in one of my properties. I contacted a repair company on Monday and they were not able to get out there until Friday. Then it took them another 4 days to get me the bid. It will take another week to get parts and schedule the repair. Now tenant is asking for a credit to rent for the delay.

They are a good paying tenant. Just resigned them to another 1 year lease. I do have concerns that the repair may be due to abuse by tenant, but no way to prove it.

[Jim Sokoloff]

I'm 100% with @Account Closed on this one. 

Your "good tenants" didn't sign on for another year in a $1750/mo rental with laundry so they could schlep down to the laundromat while your repair company takes most of week to even get out there and most of another week to get you the bid on the repair.

If you're thinking of giving them a $50 credit, giving them $100 credit costs you an additional $50, or less than the rent on one day's worth of vacancy. Better IMO to err on the side of making them feel like they got treated "more than fairly" to set them on a course towards a third year of renting than to save $50 now, leave a bad taste in their mouth over the laundry issue, and turn the apartment over next year.