All Forum Posts by: Sunny P.

Hey new to bigger pockets just thought I'd jump right in!

One thing you could consider is getting a home warranty on your home. Most home warranties will cover all of the appliances and the typical things that "break" with tenants.

I recently attended a lunch n learn hosted by a home warranty company we work with in Jacksonville FL and they said they cover AC, refrigerators, etc.

It's about $700 for a warranty but if you have a realtor refer you they generally give us discounts for our clients and we can get a basic plan for about $425.

That's very reasonable to work into your annual calculations because it will save you a lot on repairs. Oh! And they do inspections twice a year.

Good luck!

Joseph

Coolant leak is nothing to do with the tenant. Although the filter really hasn't helped as the thing is beating itself to death.

What you can do if you know a friendly AC man is get a 'new' inside unit (if it's the inside coils).

What AC guys will not tell you is that you can easily match inside units to outside units as long as they are same tonnage, same type, and same gas. We've moved around outside units before, no big deal.

(As for the gas, when they do the job, they just put the gas in the outside unit, put a newer inside unit in the house, connect them up, release the gas through the two systems and you're good to go again).

8 years is nothing.

AC companies live in a land where all the customers are mushrooms; keep them in the dark.

(Still not entirely sure what the difference is between the outside units for different gases.)

New AC system (inside and out) should be around $3000-3300 for 2.5 tons. They buy them new for less than $2k and they take less than a day to install.

 How to know if it's still under warranty?  Look at your receipt?  Call the company? Home warranty?

But, I would bet that 8 years is beyond the life expectancy of the unit.  Sure, maybe they will last longer, but to charge the tenant for damage to a unit, you have to depreciate it.  So, if the unit was worth $3,000 and it's life expectancy was 5 years, and it was 2 years old, you can only charge them for 3/5ths the cost of replacing it.  If the life expectancy is 5 years, and the unit has been in place for over 5 years, you can't charge them anything for it. 

And, really, good luck in court with trying to convince a judge that the cause of an 8 year old unit failing was because the tenant didn't clean the filter.  The tenant will just say, well, prove that was the reason it died.

And, you'd have to explain to a judge why you weren't taking any responsibility by doing some normal inspections.

That's my opinion anyway.

Before I spring for a new one, I would invest in finding the leak. It shouldn't take long to determine in what section the leak is and if it is repairable. Herein lies the benefit. An AC repair is a deductible expense. A new AC install needs to be depreciated over 27.5 years.

Make it part of your system to do an inspection every 6 months, where you check smoke detector batteries, filter, check for leaks, running toilets, etc.

But, no, the appliances are your responsibility, unless you have a lease and state laws that allow you to make the tenant responsible.  This is part of the cost of being a landlord, and part of the reason some people choose to be tenants rather than own.  

Sounds like you need a new air conditioner to me. Things break, just like cars.  When you own something mechanical, you can expect it to need repairs in time.  Is it still under warranty, by any chance ?

You are already $275 into this AC. You need to look at buying a new one. Have the repair guy estimate what this repair will cost and if it's over such such amount go get a new unit. If this is a window unit $300 - $400 will get you a pretty good one.

It is not possible that a dirty filter caused the leak. If he had to add 6# of freon it should be easy to find the leak. Also it must be a big air conditioner to hold 6 #