No Excitement Today

I wish I had something exciting to report, but the real life of a rental property owner isn't always like that. The most exciting thing that happened today is that one of my tenants locked herself out of her apartment and I unlocked the door for her. BORING!

I worked about 4 hours today. Most of my time was spent wiring an apartment for electric baseboard heat and an electric stove. This is the last of 4 apartments in the building to be converted over to all electric. We are converting all our rentals to "all electric" so that we don't have to deal with the idiots at the gas company. Unfortunately, our local gas company apparently has no inspection standards. With tenants frequently having their utilities turned off and on (due to payment issues), we frequently have the gas company coming to turn the gas on. It's always a crapshoot as to whether the idiots will turn the gas on. It all depends on WHO comes from the gas company. Some of their employees will red tag just about every gas appliance they see, while others will turn on just about anything. It's completely ridiculous.

Here's an example. One of our houses has a boiler system that is OLD (probably about 75 years old). Last year, we had a boiler expert (that installs the boilers in all the local schools) come to inspect the boiler. Due to the age of the system, I asked him if we should replace the boiler. He laughed and said that the boiler would probably outlast any new system that we could put in today. It did need some maintenance, and he overhauled the unit for about $400.

This year, when a new tenant moved in, we needed the gas turned on. The idiot from the gas company red tagged (failed) the boiler and told the tenant that it was UNSAFE and should be abandoned. To make matters worse, the gas company sent a letter to the tenant saying that the boiler was unsafe and could cause injury or death to the occupants. I called the gas company to ask why the boiler had been red tagged. Their answer - they didn't have a reason. Although the technician was required by company policy to list a reason, he hadn't done so. Apparently, he didn't know anything about boilers, so he simply red tagged the unit so that he wouldn't have to light it. This moron had not only inconvenienced the tenant, but he also scared them with his stupid talk of injury or death. The whole incident highlighted the incompetence of our gas company.

This type situation happens frequently and I simply have gotten tired of dealing with the gas company. Their inconsistent application of whatever standards they have and their outright incompetence have led me to change many units over to "all electric". While my actions will not single-handedly shut down the gas company, I own more than one percent of all the rental housing in our city and that is significant. In addition, I'm encouraging the other landlords to switch over to "all electric" also. It won't take more than a few landlords switching to have an impact on the gas company.