Impatient Tenant
I have a tenant whos refrigerator died thursday night. He left me a message thursday evening, say 7pm, and i didnt receive the message until 11pm. Friday morning, he leaves me a message saying that he can’t wait to hear from me regarding the matter, and that he is going to go to HomeDepot later…
I have a tenant whos refrigerator died thursday night. He left me a message thursday evening, say 7pm, and i didnt receive the message until 11pm. Friday morning, he leaves me a message saying that he can’t wait to hear from me regarding the matter, and that he is going to go to HomeDepot later that afternoon and pick up a fridge himself, and that he will deduct the cost from this months rent. I get the message sometime around 2pm and try to call him before he tries to make the purchase. He winds up buying a refrigerator that costs $600! Which is a considerable figure considering I had one picked out for less than $400, and what he was replacing was a basic, bare minimum unit. Tonight, I get his rent check minus $700, which includes the cost of the fridge, tax, and delivery.
In a situation like this, am i responsible for the entire cost of his appliance considering the difference of what I would have purchased? Is it unreasonable to only reimburse him $400 and try to collect? Any advice is much appreciated
you both seem to be at fault in this situation. your tenant jumped the gun, but you seemed to be unavailable. i’m not sure what fridge you’d get for $400, it certainly wouldn’t be $400 including delivery. the cheapest basic ones seem to be at least $500 including delivery, your tenant really isn’t ripping you off significantly (also consider your time having to get that done over the weekend).
regardless, just clarify with your tenant about these situations in the future so they don’t happen again.
if the tenant is a pain otherwise, don’t renew the lease.
i agree. having a fridge go down is vital and very important. a $700 fridge is not ridiculous and he just saved you some time. be thankful you have tenants that can take care of their own needs. seems like all you landlords are the same.
What kind of fridge costs $400? Would you not have paid tax and delivery? Perhaps he bought an energy efficient model that will save you money in the long run. I say give him the money and let him know how you feel, so he can choose not to renew his lease when the time comes.
The wording of your post, sums your thinking and behavior.
He is impatient, implying he should wait for you to act.
Your timeline:
Fridge dies thursday night-tenant calls you that night
Friday morning calls you again, stating that in AFTERNOON he will purchase a new fridge.
So what happened Thursday night and Friday morning you couldnt call them back?
What were you doing? Where is your responsibility?
Why even be a land lord when you cannot return calls that affect peoples standard of living?
the tenant i’m sure had food that spoiled while you were “busy”
you decided not to return the call or at least you waited until it was convenient for you. now you complain about a $200 diff in what you would buy? give the guy a break and get a cell phone
try if you can to put yourself in their shoes, are you even capable of that?
you are a bad landlord. you don’t return a call on a vital issue in your rental, then your tenant does your job for you and now you want to penalize him. you can lay down the law for the future, but suck it up on this one or stop being a landlord.
Is this for real? I think that is incredible. Why wouldn’t he trust you to take care of it? I am a landlord and I pretty much jump when the tenants have a problem, but what you describe is off. You could make him return this. You could decide to sit down with him and have a conversation about how you deal with these things in the future. Re the future, you may decide you don’t want a future. Look at your lease. Regarding your messages, you really should get a cell phone and keep it on. If you are responsible for the tenants, there could be be more of an emergency than this. What if there was a broken pipe or a fire, you really should be on hand because that is when tenants start taking things into their own hands, which is what you don’t want. Good luck.
Couldn’t agree more with anon 2:18 – you are the landlord and you now have no choice but to be harsh with this guy. If you don’t, you’ll pay for it later.
Too many people mistake kindness for weakness and there is no room for kindness with someone who is trying to take advantage of you.
You are not a machine – waiting a day for a call back is a perfectly reasonable expectation.
A tenant replaced his own appliances in 24 hours. That is ridiculous. Tell him to return the appliance at his own expense and you will fix the original or replace it with the model of your choosing. The above poster is right, if you accept his accounting you will be sorry in the future. Also do not renew his lease.