As I was driving into town at about noon today, I received a call from one of my Section 8 tenants. She said that they were nearly "frozen to death". Since that sounded pretty serious, I told her that I would be right over, I certainly don't want to have any tenants die from the cold. I knocked on the door and was surprised when the female tenant (the one that called) was wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. I asked her what the problem was and she said that the kitchen was so cold that the water in her washing machine was frozen and that it was "ice cold" in the bedrooms upstairs.
Now I'm no newbie when it comes to operating rentals during the winter. I know that EVERY year tenants call to complain about the cold and about their utility bills. During the winter, I always carry two thermometers in my truck. So, I told her that we would put a thermometer in each room to see what the temperature actually is. Within a couple of minutes, the thermometer in the kitchen read 68 degrees and the one upstairs read nearly 70 degrees! Hardly cold enough to "freeze to death". As I did a little more looking, I determined that the tenants had placed things over the registers in both rooms. So, I instructed the tenants to uncover the registers and expressed my sincere belief that they would indeed survive!
Never underestimate a tenant's ability to exaggerate and be dramatic!!!
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2 comments:
Sounds like you narrowly averted a major lawsuit. You must be relieved :)
You're right about that Ryan! I don't know how they survived the 68 degree temperature in the kitchen!
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