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Updated over 9 years ago, 07/12/2015
Is 24 hours unreasonable to repair an AC?
we have had a good, but picky, tenant for seven years. He has a lot of requests and most are reasonable. The three year old air conditioning went out today (Sunday).
We got in touch with a repair company. They said they could be there tomorrow afternoon. They offered to come this afternoon, but there would be a $55 surcharge for a Sunday visit, plus an extra charge if they had to make a second trip because their parts supplier isn't open Sunday. This was the lowest surcharge I could find, by far.
We told the tenant the repair person would be out tomorrow. Since the tenant seemed frantic to fix the air, we said they could call the company out today if they were willing to pay the surcharge themselves. The tenant had called around himself and knew companies were available.
It was a high of 81 today and is going into the 60's tonight. So it's not painfully hot. Our air is not on at our house.
The tenant is furious. Did I make a mistake? Should I have paid the Sunday fee to keep a good tenant happy?
My personal opinion, it's your property they live in... you call the shots not them. Air conditioning is a luxury and does not have to be provided by the landlord. You have a certain time line as a landlord by law to fix an issue. Personally something like this, I think you have done a great job by getting someone out there tomorrow. I had a property go 2 weeks without air because someone stole the unit. If the person has kids, my morals would kick in, so if the HVAC people couldn't get out there till say Friday, I may go take a window unit over. With you having the repair guy out there tomorrow and it just went out today, you did not make any mistake. The tenant made the mistake by thinking they have a right to call the shots. I'd say it's time to find a good, less picky tenant, but that is me. I will let a property sit empty before I rent to someone who would cause me grief.
24 hours is not unreasonable at all
when speaking to tenant. Focus on the positives....
"good news is I got ahold of someone and he can be there first thing tmrw morning."
Tenants have a way of turning things negative pretty quickly
#2 Contractors Contributor
- Severna Park, MD
I wish I could get someone to come to MY house in 24 hours to fix my ac . I had to wait 3 days last year , and I am good friends with the owner of the company
24 hours sounds very reasonable to be too. Like Justin mentioned, I keep a 110 window unit and not an ac goes out I offer to let them use this until my AC people can make it out. It won't cool the house but It will cool one room. It came out of a house I put central ac in so it cost me nothing. That way if it takes a few days for the repair they have something. Also, there are too many good tenants wanting homes to lease here in the Houston area so I wouldn't let anyone cause me problems.
Good luck
They are being totally unreasonable. And like the repair guy said, it's likely that they wouldn't even be able to repair it today anyway. Try not to let him guilt you, you did fine.
24 hours is very reasonable. Discomfort doesn't constitute an emergency.
For future reference it would be a good idea to "manage expectations".
Make a list/policy of what you consider an emergency and non-emergency. Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc. Include the average response times for each item example 24-48 hours, or same day, general repairs could be longer. Go over this list with your tenant. Explain that your guys are often tied up with other jobs.
By speaking to him before there's a a problem he'll be more agreeable. He'll still grumble a little in the future, but not as much. And you'll be a little less stressed out.
also being that you have a picky tenant, I wouldn't give him the surcharge option in the future. Just stick with your response time policy.
As mentioned by @Larry P. you might get a backup window unit . I have portable AC in the garage I've used for tenants, that's a little more convenient than a window unit.