How to respond to tenant?

[Elenis Camargo]

Hi Bigger Pockets people!! My husband and I purchased our very first investment property in Florida, where we are from. We are currently living in New York. The property had a bad AC that we fixed right away and a few weeks after purchase, a pipe broke in the yard and we fixed that within 24 hours. We took over the property in February and the tenant told us the previous owner / property management company took very long to fix issues she had in the past. Basically her water and electric bill increased by hundreds of dollars the month before we purchased because the AC wasn’t fixed and because she didn’t know about the pipe. The previous owners never fixed the AC for her. She sounds like she wants advice on what to do but we don’t want to get into the middle of some battle that’s not our problem. She didn’t ask for a credit on her rent or anything. She said she called the utility company and they can’t credit her and they advised her to contact the previous owner for credit. I doubt they’ll give her anything back. Any way you guys suggest to handle this? Thanks so much!

[Wesley W.]

I think if you give advice you'd just be "feeding the stray dog" and might get pulled into something that is not your issue.  A Miranda-esque quote comes to mind: anything you say can and will be used against you...

"I'm very sorry to hear about your troubles with the previous owner, Mrs. Jones.  I really don't have any information or advice I can share with you, and it would frankly be really unprofessional of me to speculate on any past issues involving another party.  Hopefully you and I will have a much more productive relationship than your previous experience.  Here's to looking forward!"