Heat pump broke who pays increased electric bill

[Gary Houck]

So the heat pump broke on a rental of mine. So the house was heated by the strip heat. This caused the bill to go up. The tennants are wanting me to pay the increased bill. Should I? Should I pay a portion? If so how much. Advice appreicated..

[Robert Leonard]

Whatever you do, I would use a shared approach to covering the added cost to keep the tenant on board with the idea that she is responsible for reporting any problems to you as quickly as they come up. Otherwise, if you take the whole expense, anything else that comes up might be seen by the tenant as "that's the landlord's problem, I'm not worried about it if it gets worse."