To credit or not to credit, that is the question...

[John Collier]

So I am fairly new to owning a rental property... 3 months to be exact; and my tenant had their water heater go out. Immediately we ran down the basics of coaching tenant to relight the pilot, and with no success we had plumber out (the same day) and the problem was fixed in 4 days... long story short it was not the water heater, but a gas line issue which is why it took a little longer. My tenant is asking for a credit for being without hot water and I don’t think it is unreasonable to compensate but I’m at a loss as to what the compensation should amount to. Regardless of true cost of rent($500, $1000, $1500...), and of tenant demographics (single, married, family...) how would you personally (if at all...) compensate the tenant as a rent credit? 1. Rent divided by 30 days times days without hot water. Or percentage of said amount (50% of formula...) 2. Flat fee credit ($50, $75) or flat daily fee ($15 per day, $20/day...) 3 Some other metric...? 4 None... Thanks for the help fellow Bigger Pocketers John

[JD Martin]

Question: why did it take 4 days to repair? If parts had to be ordered or the gas company had to get involved, that's different than the plumber had a 3-day weekend scheduled in Tahoe. 

You had the plumber out the same day. If the repairs needed were really just a mechanical issue, and the time frame was not anyone's fault, I wouldn't do anything. Renting a house is not a guarantee of 100% function of all systems 100% of the time, any more than it would be if the tenant owned his/her own house. Things break in a home, and if it wasn't gross negligence (i.e. the water heater is 40 years old and falling apart), carelessness or some other act of purpose on the part of the landlord, the tenant is owed nothing in my opinion. You can take a shower with cold water - maybe not a comfortable shower, but a shower nonetheless. You can wash clothes with cold water. You can even run a dishwasher with cold water - not the best idea, but it works. In other words, the house was not uninhabitable. 

If you decide you do want to do something, I would make it nominal, and you should understand the tenant will expect consideration next time something goes wrong.