Reasonable time for repair/replace oven?

[Gabe G.]

Tenant called on saturday afternoon, indicating there was an issue with the oven and is not working.

I called some appliance repair companies on saturday, but of course most aren't working and returned my call on Monday. I scheduled for service on Tuesday during the day, as the tenant said that was fine. 20 mins later the tenant texts back and says, they won't be there and they must be there while the appliance repair is taking place. One of them gets home at 5:30pm. Most appliance places stop service calls at 6. Giving me a 30minute window to work with. Currently. I have someone scheduled to come out on Wednesday to look at it.

The tenant believes this is an unreasonable turnaround time for a repair of an oven. She says she doesn't know how she is going to eat. Which kinda through me. As the tenant has a microwave and a working fridge, and is within a 1 mile radius of 20 places to eat. Apparently, she spent all her money on groceries, and is out of microwavable food. And she has no money to eat, and no way to cook the food, and it's my fault.  Before we even fix the problem, she is hinting that she believes she deserves a deduction in rent of 15 dollars a day from the time the problem was reported. Which I indicated is not something I can do.

To me this all seems unreasonable. If we were taking heat going out in the winter, or AC going out in some of the hottest days of the year, or no running water. These things I deem an emergency.

An oven going out, while I understand it's an inconvenience, isn't an emergency, however it's something I will get repaired as soon as possible and act on, as soon as I hear the request.

However, Monday is the time I am able to schedule with the companies, then add they are making it hard for a particular time that works for them, the service guy has to come out on Wednesday, if he has parts it fixed then. If not, he has to order parts and it could be a few more days. Considering the oven is only 3 years old. I believe I have an obligation to see if it can be repaired.

I would say  if the oven is repaired within a week, that would be reasonable.

What does everybody else think?  What would be a reasonable turn around time in this situation for your business?

Am I wrong?

[CJ Ashton]

I only manage a couple of properties so take my $0.02 for what it's worth.

I always have my service providers call the tenant and schedule directly with them.  That way, the tenant is responsible for managing their own schedule and any delay in the problem getting repaired is on them.  I've found that most service providers have fairly flexible schedules and can get the job done in a time that is convenient for the tenant's work schedule.