I got this call today on our emergency pager. The tenant was called by our on call agent and informed the tenant that we had an air conditioning repairman lined up for Monday, tomorrow (the observed holiday as far as work goes).
This was not good enough for the tenant who wanted the fix to be made that evening.
This is a resident that pays about $50 a day in rent or $1500 a month. To get one of those 24 hour guys to make the fix would cost abot 3-4 times the regular rates of about $80 and hour and it would be someone we do not normally do business with.
If this tenant was a homeowner do you think they would pay $300 for an $80 repair to have it a day sooner? I know that I would wait the day every time.
I do not think the tenant would be willing to pay an extra $300 or more per month for 24/7 repair services. They would simply rent somewhere else and complain to that person.
I guess the issue here really is expectations. We have to do a better job informing tenants what an emergency is (property or life threatening) and what is not (no cold air in the house for a day or two).
This comes up once in a while and is never pleasant when a tenant feels like they deserve better service. They just do not understand that a rental costs money to operate and that money comes from the rent!
Happy Fourth of July.
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