All Forum Posts by: Bree Happ

@Ruth Blue

ThanksRuth, I do have a Honeywell (cheap one), but perhaps it has lockable temperatures. However for vacation rentals that seems okay because they're short term, but for long term the tenants might scoff at having imposed limits?

Or, maybe having locked limits would be like an unwritten rule they might just abide by? 

I will definitely at to my lease the rule about windows and A/C; not even to enforce it, as much as just make the tenants aware of such things. I am quite environmentally conscious and my goal is to make the house way more energy efficient, so seeing windows open with AC on irks me at a different level lol.

All the replies are awesome, thank you. 

It definitely makes sense to plan for capital expenditures in the rent. I'm not used to all these micro and macro expenses yet, like keeping an HVAC running smoothly.

Its a really good excuse to go in to check the inside conditions as well! 

In response to the micro managing, and to enforce the temperature restrictions, I have a WiFi therostat that I can check anytime anywhere; I could simply write in a conditional fee saying if "the thermostat is found to be above x temperature, a fee of x will be applied for the whole month, regardless of usage". 

It seems silly, but so does having your room temperature at 79F day and night regardless of occupancy, or running AC with windows open..  The property I acquired has a 25 year old system, and I want to make it's life last as long as possible before I replace, and not have it shortened by improper usage. As for micro-management, I'm letting the fee reason with their judgement (to pay or not to pay). I wouldn't be invading their space or privacy in any way nor actually watching the thermostat from my phone neurotically, but could easily switch to the app once in a while to check. 

Seems reasonable and fair to me, and as a way to not build capital expenditures into rent. Feel free to poke holes!

Hi all, 

this is my first house, first rental, first time landlord situation where I acquired my family home through inheritance. 

I have had good tenants for 6 months, however I found out during their occupancy in winter (the season they moved in), they were keeping the temperature at 26 Celsius (79 F) in the house all the time. They do pay for their own utilities, but my question is ; does keeping an HVAC at consistently hot or cold temperatures increase wear and tear? Or no because it's a closed system (assuming windows etc closed)?

Likewise, now I have an AC problem where it is not producing cold air.. and I know when I get it fixed they will be keeping the temperature super low. Because I have large temperature fluctuations in all months except July and August, I can only assume they will be flipping the thermostat from hot to cold, as night and day ..

I had never written into the lease specifics for house temperatures (I never thought I would honestly see someone up a thermostat up that high lol), but I know in my province of Manitoba that during the winter, temperature must be room 21 Celsius during the day and a minimum of 18 Celsius at night. There is nothing stated for summer months.

So is this okay usage by tenants, regardless of the temperature they choose to keep it at? 

And,

How are others writing in requirements for HVAC maintenance? Do you make house calls and filter replacements the responsibility of the tenants? 

Or do you think your tenants are not reliable enough to maintain such expensive equipment?

My mother once called a computer technician to plug in a printer, cause she couldn't figure out what was wrong... 

So I am very concerned that I may get tenants in the future who can't figure out simple things like thermostats, and I waste my time showing them *AGAIN* what to do. Also I plan on being long distance, so I don't want to have to pay a technician to do the same.

All insight and advice welcome!