Any Landlords? How would you react to this?

[barkley]

i'm going to pay full rent and send a letter detailing the situation and ask for just the motel reimbursement.

as a side note-re the a/c. because there have been so many deaths in the past couple of weeks due to the heat wave the local news has had quite a few pieces on the issue of a/c and habitability-apparantly if the tenant rents a place with a/c it must be kept in running order or the landlord can be held liable for issues with it (they point out that some of the construction in our area is built such that if it was originaly designed for a/c it's not possible to cool the property during a system failure-windows are up at the top of cathedral ceilings and are not the type that open-just panes-those that do have sills of less than 2 inches in width so you can't put a window type cooler in...in fact there is a very nice complex in an adjacent city and the system went out last week causing a number of residents to be hospitalized-the CITY is going after the owner for some of the costs they have incurred finding temp housing for the residents).

thanks for all the info.

 

[BuckNaked]

We're landlords - we own a home in Alabama, but we have an agency that handles everything for us. They give us a call for approval when repairs are estimated to exceed $500.

When the AC went out and needed to be replaced a couple of years ago, we instructed the rental agency to book the family into a decent hotel, and to ask them to keep receipts for their expenses while they waited for the AC to be repaired. They were out of the house for two days. The agency then reimbursed them.

While I personally wouldn't have any problem with a tenant reducing the rent check by the amount of their expenses, I would like to work it out beforehand.

 

[CJMZ]

We are also landlords in CT. Utilities are separate, so tenants are responsible for the heating and cooling of the apartments. We do provide a stove, and if a previous tenant leaves behind the fridge or washer and dryer, we tell the new tenants if they choose to keep it, then they are responsible for the maintenance, upkeep or replacement of those appliances. If they do not want it, then we would dispose of it.
If we did have an air conditioning unit in a house/apartment, and we were responsible, I would have offered to buy a portable air conditioner until the unit was fixed, especially in a heat wave and there are children involved.
If one of my tenants had to leave and stay in a hotel because of something that was faulty in the dwelling and not of their doing, I absolutely would pay the cost of the hotel as long as it was communicated prior.