Do I bill tenant for repair service charge?

[Cole Agnew]

Tenant said that the dishwasher seemed to have died. She said that she was going to wait a little bit 'pop the breaker' and try again, later she informed me that it still was not working and was presumed to be dead. I called a repair service to go out and take a look at it and got a call after from the repair man informing me it was just the GFCI breaker, the dishwasher was just fine. Do I charge the tenant the $75 service charge since she said that she checked the breaker already and that was the only issue? or do I just suck it up...

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Cole Agnew, I would suck it up the first time. The tenant didn't cause the issue by an intentional or negligent act. Also, it could have been the GFCI outlet if an outlet was used. I use a regular breaker and then wire a GFCI outlet under the sink and add a cord to the dishwasher. So, it may not have been obvious to the tenant.

I would make sure the tenant knows what to do next time and if you want to tell them next time the cost is on them if you have to send someone for a false alarm like that because next time they SHOULD know.