Do you use a Nest thermostat for a rental?

Question

If you use a Nest thermostat for a rental how do you hand off control to a new tenant and terminate control of the old one? Do you create a gmail account for the apartment, share the PW, and change the PW when it turns over?

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I wouldn't use such technology in a rental. It's 5x the cost of a standard thermostat, it's more complex to set up and maintain, it's harder to transition to the next renter, and it's more likely to break.

Sometimes dumber is better.

Max T. · Answer

I always assumed that when a new tenant set up their new wifi and connected it to the nest, the previous tenant's connection would be wiped. Am I wrong? I personally don't provide a nest thermostat, but I do provide a ring doorbell. Similar idea. I never set it up myself, just installed it physically. Tenant can set it up on their phone/wifi without me, and I assume that when the next tenant does it will discontinue the old tenant's setup.

Johann Jells · Answer

Thanks Scott, I know you're trying to be helpful, but in your ignorance of the device you're verging on hysteria. If the device loses wifi it continues to function as programmed. I don't get tenants who don't get internet, it's that kind of town. And I've discovered that in the Google Home App you can create multiple homes, and share user control for individual homes without actually sharing a password. That seems workable to me. I'll continue to experiment...

Scott M. · Answer

Again, this is not something I would do in our units but if you are so inclined you could have them set up their own account and you can help them hook the nest into their account.  And then when they leave you reset it and put it back on your account.  Lots of ways of doing this.

A normal thermostat works until it breaks, doesn't rely on any other service.  What happens if it is hacked?  What happens if the service goes down and people can't use them and it is winter?  Their internet goes down?  As a landlord you need to provide heat and now that you are giving them heat that requires a third party tech company (nest) to be up and running and a third party internet provider to work....are you now required to pay for their internet because you require them to have internet to have heat?  We can all laugh but I would not be shocked if some places actually made this a law.  And yes, it requires gas and electric too, just when using a normal thermostat you are cutting down on the issues.  So if you are worried about child porn you should be worried about a few other things.

Or just get a normal thermostat that has proven to work for decades.

Johann Jells · Answer

I said exactly that in my OP, so I guess I pass that test. But someone elsewhere said I was creating a legal liability for myself sharing a Gmail account created just for that apartment with the tenant, like what if they used it to download child porn or something. Seemed paranoid to me, but these are weird times. My units rent for upwards of $1600, mostly to college educated young professionals, don't know where that puts me on the alphabet. I had one tenant request I install his Nest for him.

Scott M. · Answer

First question - do we use nest in rental.  Heck no.  But if you are in a class A area with younger, tech savvy, high income earners then I am sure that is expected. But for a normal run of the mill B, C, D area?  No.

Second question - how to cut off access, change the password.  Only give new password to new tenant.

I know that this may sound like me being an ahole, don't mean to be, but if you couldn't figure that out you should not a have Nest in your rental homes.

Johann Jells · Answer

But it can be an 'upscale feature' when renting, and my utility is giving them away. I've never had a thermostat of any kind break, even the old mechanical ones, but the complexity is a possible issue. Fortunately my tenants are all young digital natives, and probably find this stuff easier than we do!

Greg M. · Answer

I don't do anything. The tenant has physical access to it, so they just need to set up their account and connect it to their WiFi. They can remove the old account from the Nest if they wish.

Do you use a Nest thermostat for a rental?

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