I hate Home Warranties!!

[Anna Buffkin]

As the title suggests, I have home warranties. I get they are a great selling feature if you are selling a house, but they are usually more trouble than they are worth for me. I purchased a vacant house off the MLS that I just finished rehabbing and rented out on May 1. The property came with a home warranty which includes the AC. I haven't had one on any properties in probably 5 or 6 years. Well the tenant calls and says the AC worked for about 8 days and then started blowing hot 3 days ago. I call the warranty company. They finally come out this afternoon. He is there for all of 5 minutes says they breaker was flipped that was the problem and left without even checking to see if the house was again cooling. The primary tenant's elderly mother who lives with her was the one home as she was at work. She gets home to an 89 degree home, the mother relays what happened, and calls me.

I assume the breaker tripping is a symptom of the actual problem, which the tech would have known if he had stuck around.  I call the warranty company raising a fuss.  They say they may or may not get someone out tomorrow though we "are a priority".  I requested a different contractor come out as this one is obviously not competent.  I plan to call the new contractor first thing in the morning.

So, do I wait out the warranty company or just have my contractor fix it out of pocket.  At least I know he is competent (I've been using him for 6 years) and available (He has a crew working on another of my properties tomorrow which isn't as big of a priority.) ?

[Nathan Gesner]

Most professional Property Managers I know will not manage homes with a home warranty. It sounds like a great deal as a buyer but home warranty companies are in the business to make money, not protect your purchase. 

A/C problems are usually pretty simple to fix: CLICK HERE

If you can't figure it out on your own, just hire a tech and be done with it.