Tenant asking for rent deduction

Hi everyone, On Monday PM we heard from our tenants that there was no hot water. We had someone out the next morning in the AM, and the tenants have had water as of this AM. I called the tenants to explain what was happening (replacing heaters, etc.) and apologized for the inconvenience. One tenant (who has been late a number of times with her rent, and for which I did not charge a late fee), would like a rent deduction for two days of no hot water. Thoughts? What is standard here?

greencat

in Landlord 12 years and 3 months ago

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ykodama | 11 years and 6 months ago

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I am a renter and my heat and hot water have stopped working 12 days last winter and 3 days this winter. My landlady always apologizes and says She understands how miserable I must be and suggests I boil water and buy electric blankets. The problem is always fixed within 24 hours- usually the 20th hour. I have two young children and am a recent cancer patient with Reynaud’s syndrome. I have never asked for a rent reduction but how else do I get my landlady to take our heating and hot water needs seriously? I do not want to have the city fine because I am worried she will raise the rent.

est | 12 years and 2 months ago

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Totally agree with other answers here. Had a tenant without heat in one  room for a day or two during the coldest stretch in the winter, which we felt horrible about.  Still, they got that it was just a glitch and were just happy when we figured out what the problem was. Does seem like this tenant is playing games and you probably want to be firm, not set a precedent etc.

jeanmarine2 | 12 years and 3 months ago

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That’s absolutely ridiculous.  You and she should re-check the lease.  I bet it covers this type of thing – by possibly being specific about what DOES in fact qualify for an abatement and not mentioning a broken hot water heater that you had repaired very quickly.  From a legal standpoint she has no leg to stand on, I suspect.  From a practical standpoint, I do suggest being super apologetic, e.g., “sorry for your trouble, we got it fixed quickly and please let us know if you have any further problems, thanks for your patience blah blah.  Oh you want a rent abatement for those days?  Sorry but the lease covers this topic (if true) and it’s not to the level of habitability issues for which a rent abatement is appropriate here, thanks again for understanding blah blah”.  Here’s what qualifies for a rent abatement:  when our CEILING collapsed with me in the room and it could have killed me, leading to us being in boxes for weeks while the landlord had the ceilings pulled down and sheetrocked, so we had the use of half the apartment for that period.  Yes I asked for a partial rent abatement figuring I had the use of half the apartment (this after he refused to pay our rent insurance deductible for the damage, and a bunch of other out of pocket costs for the damage).  Yes he said no.  Yes I’m an attorney and read the lease HE provided.  Yes I pointed out the legal provision clearly allowing a rent abatement in exactly our situation.  Yes I withheld the abatement out of the rent.  No we were never on good terms again (after years of a fantastic landlord-tenant relationship, that ceiling collapse was the end of all good relations, he handled it poorly (understatement).  We bought a place within a month and were the heck out of there.  I never wanted to be a tenant again after that and didn’t want to be a mean landlord either, so didn’t raise our tenant’s rent for 5 years since it was a fair rent to start with.  (So with that context, your tenant is out of bounds here.)

slopemope | 12 years and 3 months ago

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non-renewal.  no questions about it, if they have been late and you were cool about it, get the heck rid of them.  there are lot of really good tenants out there, and it is certainly not a renters market.  you need to listen to these little warnings – especially since you are an absentee landlord.

leroysnipt | 12 years and 3 months ago

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Be wary of tenants like these. I know the type and in my experience they only cause more headaches down the road, evidenced by this nonsensical rent reduction request and prior late rental payments. If it is a free market rental do yourself a favor and do not renew him/her/they when lease time is up.  I know it isn’t fun to have to deal with a new tenant, not to mention screening for a new one, but it is better in the long run. I once had this kind of tenant early on in my landlording experience (late payments all the time, requested a rent reduction because they couldn’t afford the rental payment, called for changing light bulbs!, etc)…we tried to always accommodate and in the end they left the place a mess with water damage to the kitchen area, damaged cabinets and when we tried to use the security deposit to repair they took us to court…they lost but still a headache.  Life is too short.

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 3 months ago

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And yes, start keeping track of late fees and take it out of deposit at the end.

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 3 months ago

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Absolutely not.

eliasbstuy | 12 years and 3 months ago

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That’s insane that your tenant asking for deduction b/c there were no hot water for days. Stupidity has its limit and this such things are not anything but trying to paying less rent.

greencat | 12 years and 3 months ago

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Thanks. I know, i know. But we are living out of the country and so the last thing we need is a tenant not paying rent, etc 🙁 But I agree we need to hold firm or it is a slippery slope!

zampano | 12 years and 3 months ago

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you have a whiner or a winner, don’t know which. How many units are there? If they aren’t stabilized, find a replacement because life isn’t going to be fun under the next mayor

thatwasmyidea | 12 years and 3 months ago

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absolutely not. there is no habitability issues. tell her sorry, 12 hours of no hot water doesn’t get a rent reduction. better yet, tell her you’ll take it off the late fees she owes you.