Gas leak and no one seems to be able to fix In Tampa

[Joseph S.]

In my 4 years as a landlord, whenever I've had needed repairs, it has never been much of an issue because I or my warranty company and have found the appropriate person to call, called them, and they fixed the problem.

About 2 weeks ago, my tenant thought he smelled gas and called the gas company who came over and confirmed that there was a leak somewhere but didn't know exactly where. They checked all the appliances and found nothing but said we would need to call someone else to find the exact location. They also said they would have to turn off the gas so my tenant has been without gas (which means no hot water) for 2 weeks.

My warranty company sent someone out, but apparently this person did not have the right equipment to detect the exact location and would only be able to operate by tearing into the wall at various spots until it was found (obviously this would not work). For the next 8 days my warranty company tried to find someone who would have the proper equipment to detect the exact location but couldn't find anyone so they gave me authorization to find someone myself. My tenant has some connections and found a guy who thought he could do it, but when he came to the townhouse he said he too didn't have the necessary equipment.

I know I'm not savvy with repairs, but this seems odd to me that no one seems to know how to fix the issue w/o destroying my walls. Has anyone had anything similar or do people have suggestions?