Tenant with no heat, can’t be fixed quickly

[Shawn Stiteler]

I am a relatively new landlord (1.5 years) and encountering my first major issue. I bought a duplex January 2021. The first floor unit had oil heat and I wanted to change it to gas. There was nothing wrong with the heater but it was old and I wanted to get a more efficient source of heat for the unit. I was already contracted to get the heater replaced, just waiting for parts and permit processes.

I guess to keep this short, my major issue is the heater that was in the unit just completely broke and can not be fixed and there is no way to fix it anytime soon. May even be 2 weeks. I brought over electric space heaters as soon as I knew it was dead. However tenant is saying it’s still too cold in the place.

I tried researching for what my options and obligations are but all I could find is lawyer forums for “when your landlord refuses to fix the heat”. And how it should be fixed in 24 hours or “reasonable amount of time”.

So what do you do when you can not fix the heat in a reasonable amount of time?

[Nathan Gesner]

There's a big difference between "Landlord refuses to fix heat" and "Landlord tries to fix heat but can't find a contractor for two weeks, so he provided me with space heaters." 

You don't control when things break or when contractors are available. Do the best you can. In the meantime, keep your tenants warm.

I would continue calling around. Vendors have appointments drop and someone may be able to squeeze you in faster. They would rather do a single large job like replacing a furnace than six small repair jobs.