Arbitrage tenant wanting reimbursement for lost rent

[Julie Washburn]

Hi! We have a tenant who is doing a 1 year lease to arbitrage our property (single family home) out as a short term rental. The temperatures have been unusually low and pipes in the home froze for 5 days so far, making the house unusable as a short term rental. We've all been working on getting the pipes thawed and water back on, but no luck yet. The tenants would like us to pay them the amount of their lost revenue as a rent concession. The risk there is that it sets a precedence for us to reimburse them for any uncontrollable event that results in a loss in revenue. We offered a general, smaller, rent concession as a courtesy. They weren't satisfied with that. Has anyone dealt with this type of situation before?

[Theresa Harris]

I wouldn't do it. I would prorate the rent that they pay you to cover those days.  So if they pay $1500 a month, $48/day.  

Also do you know why the pipes froze?  Was the house vacant and the heat off or just bad luck?