Tenant Rent Reduction Request

[Traci Thomason]

Have your tenants ever asked for a rent reduction?

My tenants (students renting by the bedroom in a 4 Br college town home) are requesting a rent reduction due to repairs taking a long time. Their AC and Fridge have not been working for quite some time now (about a month). The requests were handled expeditiously but in both cases a part is required to repair the item that has taken a long time to come in due to COVID. I’ve switched repair techs and truly did my best to get it fixed quickly. I bought them fans because of the AC issues. They are also complaining about spiders and although I offer pest control as a courtesy, I know that pest control is not my responsibility in GA. Either way pest control has been out multiple times.

I am a very nice landlord so I am inclined to just say yes. Their requested reduction would be equivalent to about 60% of a months rent (but they pay by the semester). However I am wondering if they are unfairly piling on here. I would be very angry in their situation but I would have also purchased a mini fridge and my own fan/room cooling, and even have my own bug spray. I had those things in my college rooms anyways regardless of what the property had. Has anyone dealt with this before? How did you handle it? How WOULD you handle this?

[Joyce Tavares]

I would have given them a mini-fridge or a used replacement fridge in the meantime.  You can get them really cheap on the Facebook marketplace for GA.   I might just replace the refer with a used one in good condition.  One month is too long to wait for repairs to a refrigerator.  If it is truly hot and requires A/C, I would purchase a portable A/C unit on Amazon.com and when they are done with it, use it when you need it in other units.  The two would cost you about $600 and are tax deductible.  I would not lower the rent.  I always try to do this as soon as possible so they are not put out by needed repairs.  But that is me.  I try to keep tenants happy...sometimes it is hard.