All Forum Posts by: Mark H.

 Actually, I was "screaming" both times.  With the no heat issue, all they told me was that if there were enough complaints, they'd eventually drop that contractor, but as long as the issue was eventually fixed, they got paid in full.

I just prefer to go without at this point.  Paying myself I have better control of the situation.  I find realtors like to toss it in the paperwork because most people don't complain, the seller isn't really paying for it anyway, and it's not like they're going to lower the sales price by the warranty amount if you decline it.  I'm sure the agents probably get a small kickback too, but I could be wrong on that.

I've bought two houses that the "seller" paid for it.  Both times I amazingly came out financially on the deal, but in terms of time they're a horrible deal.

The first time, it took a week and a half to replace a blower motor over the coldest part of our winter.  The only heat I had in the meantime was a couple space heaters and a decorative wood burning fireplace.

The second time, I was without A/C for three weeks during the hottest part of our summer with a pregnant wife.  Most of that was waiting for the home warranty company to decide what they were going to do about it.  Even then, they replaced the compressor and paid for the labor, but didn't pay to have the system evacuated and refilled, that was on me.

I couldn't imagine having to wait for these companies with a tenant in place.

If it's vacant, kill the breakers. :)

A little passive-agressive, but they'll get the idea.

Something you may want to look into if she's using a space heater.  I'm assuming there's only one thermostat in the apartment?  Is she using the space heater in this room?  If so, it might be registering warm enough to keep the heat from coming on and making the rest of the apartment cold.

I think you need to think about this from the homeowners perspective.  You go to your mailbox and there's a huge pile of mail in there.  Most of which you expect to be junk.  First you pick out the obvious non-junk (bills, greeting cards, maybe your magazine subscription).  Then you toss the obvious junk.  So maybe there's an envelope or two that you actually open.

Most people trash this stuff without even reading it and if they do read it, they read just enough to verify that its yet another solicitation and tossing it.

When we were relocating three years back, we had a six month lease in a large local apartment complex.  They required a renters policy and to be listed as an additional interest.  Since we still had our homeowners policy at the time, our agent said we didn't need the separate policy and listed them as an additional interest to the current policy.  In the process of selling/buying, the policy on our old house "lapsed", but was within the 30-day grace period.  They then re-wrote it into the new house policy with the apartment complex still listed, but in the middle of it, the apartment complex received a notice and we were asked about it.  Explained what was happening with the policy, but not sure if they would have tossed us out had the answer been different.

So if you have an address and an LLC name, why can't you send a registered letter?