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My long term tenant called at 5:30 this morning and said her 2 year old refrigerator has frozen everything in the refrigerator and she's staying home from work so she will be home when the new one arrives...
I no longer supply any free-standing appliances because appliance issues are either emergency in nature or a safety issue... for longer term tenants I still service what I own and she's been there 13 years...
Anyway, I stop by for a look and she shows me all of her frozen fruits and veggies... I take a look and it turns out her Grandson maxed out the temp setting to as cold as it would go because his juice was not cold enough
Crisis averted... I can't stress enough how much my management experiences have improved since I no longer furnish any freestanding appliances on new tenancies...
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 10-06-2009 at 11:43 AM..
Reason: typo
I have it my leases, and point it out to the tenant, if they are the casue of the problem, they pay for the repair. That is if the plumbing backs up, that's not maintenance, that's thier problem. Same with broken windows or broken appliances. It makes people more careful about calling for service when they know it's thier fault and they have to pay the plumber or other repairman.
Only if the house came with appliances I will have repairs done. on other homes I rent just like the OP without any free standing appliances...
One home I rent out has appliances and the last tenant told me 2 days before leaving (but already moved out) that the microwave wasn't working and her boy frind ahd looked at it and nothing could be find..so we went and bought a new one since a new tenant was moving in 5 days later...When we got there with the new microwave, we wanted to take the old one out and started by unplugging the old microwave....but actually had to plug it in...and that was the cause of the microwave not working...!
i didn't charge them for the work we had, but took money out of the sec. deposit for other items, but did mention it on the statement...still her boy friend told me they would sue me for the $ 150 I distracted from the sec. deposit for things taken that belonged and were attached to the home...
at one point he called me (I taped it, since his previous voicemail was very obnoxious and rude) and treated me with a lawyer and told me later in a voicemail that all further correspondence had to go through his lawyer....well he never gave me address or phone number of the lawyer...
I had put down the phone on him one time since I couldn't get one word into the conversation and when he called me back and asked what happened I told him, he never officialy lived there, wasn't on the lease (he lived 2 doors down)...and wasn't a party in this, and I was willing to discuss anything with the tenant who's name was on the lease....and btw was a very nice person....
My long term tenant called at 5:30 this morning and said her 2 year old refrigerator has frozen everything in the freezer and she's staying home from work so she will be home when the new one arrives...
<snip>
I have had that problem with every referigerator I have ever owned, the freezer keeps freezing everything!!
Just kidding, the context made it clear what happened...
In my area, it is totally untypical to have a rental that doesn't have a fridge. It is totally normal and expected for a fridge to be provided, and tough to find a renter who owns a fridge of their own.
The one thing I've noticed is that invariably, a fridge/freezer will wait until a tenant "just bought $500 in groceries!!" to die. Whether its true or not, that is always the story, every time.
Maybe it is more common over here since many people lost their homes and like to spend less on renting if they have a fridgerator....most new build homes don't come with a fridge so they take it with them..., just like the washer and dryer that I don't provide....I do provide a microwave, stove/oven and dishwasher..just like Ultrarunner, I guess...?
Maybe it is more common over here since many people lost their homes and like to spend less on renting if they have a fridgerator....most new build homes don't come with a fridge so they take it with them..., just like the washer and dryer that I don't provide....I do provide a microwave, stove/oven and dishwasher..just like Ultrarunner, I guess...?
I really have moved away from furnishing all free-standing appliances...
If a tenant needs a refrigerator/range... I can often help them get one on the cheap and sometimes I can get them one for free... all documented of course.
My most recent new tenant got a fantastic deal on appliances at the local Sears Warehouse Depot... Sears doesn't offer delivery on these items so I went with him and picked them up... a win/win as far as I'm concerned.
At one time, when I managed a lot of Residential Units for others... about 50% of my time was spent on Appliance Issues that really are secondary to the business of providing shelter...
The majority of these calls turned out to be tenant caused... yet, I still had to spend time in effort getting them resolved.
I caused a lot of trouble once at a medium sized community when I replaced a refrigerator for a long term tenant because I was able to get a very good deal on a new model vs repairing the old one... I was deluged by calls from all the other residents wanting to know when they were getting new refrigerators
Currently, I don't supply any individual Microwaves, Washer/Dryers and/or Dishwashers... I have also removed 90% of the garbage disposals...
Basically, it has to be built in like a wall oven or built-in range or a legacy appliance from a long term tenant for me to maintain it...
At move-out one of the big problems used to be dirty appliances or missing appliance parts... now, it's no longer an issue
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