Service Call Reimbursement from Tenant on HVAC Filter Clog

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Mindy JensenPro Member

BiggerPockets Money Podcast Host · Longmont, CO · Member since 2014 · 7k+ posts · 10k+ votes

8y

This is a great, no-emotion letter. I would send it with only one change, to make a due date for the fee. (I'd make it due before rent is due again, so send the letter today.)

Ned J.Pro Member

Investor · Manteca, CA · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes

8y

Personally I'd eat the $75 for the "first offense" for something like this for a truly good tenant....... do you really expect a tenant to change the filter each month?.....not going to happen. How many homeowners do that?....next to none...... I probably do mine every 6-12 months, tops and I own the place.

I would do all the paperwork and notices and invoices and make sure the tenant knows that next time they will pay the cost and any/all cost associated with any damage the neglect causes.

For a good low maintenance tenant, I'm going to cut them some slack for a pretty unrealistic maintenance item

Another reason why local landlords just do the filter themselves and use it as in excuse to inspect the property every couple of months

2 Reply

OP

Investor · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 19 posts · 8 votes

8y

@Ned J. thank you - that's a good point, for a good tenant possibly we could do a first offense sort of approach. She has had a few minor repairs in just her first two months of the lease, but I couldn't 100% attribute them to her - a light cover fell and broke, but we had hired a cleaning company to clean the fixtures and they might not have replaced it properly. The back door locking bar broke, but also we didn't examine it super closely in the walk through with her. We are learning as we go and the advice here combined with our real life lessons are so very helpful for that!

I agree that it's probably unrealistic to expect most tenants to change it each month and we will re-examine our approach to this - we do ours every 3 months at our own house, but she has only been there for two months and already clogged the filter so bad that the AC froze up! With it that bad at only two months, I think this system needs the filter changes each month - she doesn't live with an excessive number of pets or anything.

We were spoiled by our first few tenants who were amazing and took care of the property possibly even better than if they owned it themselves. Moving forward I think we might switch it up to replacing it ourselves and inspecting everything at that time.

OP

Investor · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 19 posts · 8 votes

8y

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OP

Investor · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 19 posts · 8 votes

8y

@Mindy Jensen thank you, good call. A due date is always helpful :)

Account Closed

Retired Landlord/Author · Commerce Township, MI · Member since 2012 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

8y

The problem with having a little bit of compassion in business such as ours can lead to serious issues down the road.

Our properties cost thousands and thousands of dollars. We have invested a ton of money, time, sweat, worry, and anxiety because we never know what the Real Estate Market may bring. Therefore, the only thing that we can rely on, is our Lease Agreement and making sure we choose tenants that are COLLECTIBLE and ADULTS.

We have a Lease Agreement that states all the rules for our tenants to read and adhere to. We screened them, we called references, we checked background, we checked their work and references. We never rent to children, so we should never view tenants or treat tenants as children. It is an insult.

If you go over the Lease Agreement with them prior to handing over the keys, during the signing of the lease, you are making them aware of their responsibility.

Yes, there are some minor little things, you may turn the other cheek on. But what happened here created a lot of damage.

Do you know that when someone violates the law, most say to the Judge, Gee I didn't know it was against the law, but too bad so sad, they still are held accountable.

If we go over every detail about what we expect from our tenants, as well as having it written in the Lease Agreement, prior to handing over the keys, there shouldn't be any excuse for not knowing the rules set forth in the rental agreement.

When tenants don't change the filters, it gets thick and ugly, causing clogs and it makes their bills go higher. The furnace works harder, the air condition works harder, and they end up paying more money then they should, and it can ruin a furnace big time. (I go over this with them as well)

You see, we need to train our tenants to be future homeowners by letting them see the necessity for changing the filter, and all that goes with what can happen to a house if not take care of. This isn't treating them as children, it is teaching them what to expect when one lives in a house.

Plus, if they couldn't take care of changing the filters themselves, we are only a phone call away. We may charge them a fee to do it ourselves, but if they can't do a simple thing like change a filter in the furnace room, then they are not responsible people.

How long does it take to write on Calendar the date of when the last filter has been changed and the date the next filter needs installed?

Once again, we rent to ADULTS, NOT CHILDREN.

Compassion is being a good listen, being understanding towards another person's life and woes, but it doesn't come into play when it comes to their responsibility in taking care of a rental home.

Nancy Neville

2 Reply

Ned J.Pro Member

Investor · Manteca, CA · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes

8y

If you can train your tenants to change the filter every month, then more power to you........

But in the vast majority of situations, that menial task is rarely done by most tenants.....kind of like having your dentist tell you to floss every day :) Some do it, but most wont...at least not on any regular basis for a sustained time.

Must be different in CA....or my house...I change the filter every 6-12 months and its is barely dirty. And I have kids, pets and my house is a mess most of the time. Obviously it depends on the house....and the tenant.

If the tenant has only been there 2 months and its clogged so dirty that it froze the AC, then something isn't right...... the house/tenant would have to be filthy to do that.

You had a Home Warranty company do the work ..... be careful with their diagnosis....those technician are often morons and will do just about anything to not really figure out the issue or really fix it....they do the minimum to appear like they fixed it and move on.....only to have the issue remain and you call them again in 31 days....1 day after the last "fix" warranty is up and you get to pay again. So I wouldn't be so confident in what they diagnosed or "fixed"

OP

Investor · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 19 posts · 8 votes

8y

Yes, our house doesn't really freeze over either at 3 months with 3 inside dogs and a toddler. She seems to keep the house in good order. Now you have me thinking the diagnosis might have missed something! The company they used has a pretty good rating, but I mean I've been through that before - highly rated vendors just lying to your face.

This headache might be alleviated by replacing the filters ourselves from now on... so we eliminate the possibility of this being the case of AC failures moving forward, but we'll see. Her AC unit has seemed to be working just fine since she replaced the filter.... wonder if it will keep up as the temperatures are already looking to reach 100 Sunday here!

Thank you all for your input, it's so helpful to have more than one thought process on handling these issues.

Scott Rogers

Member since 2018 · 88 posts · 72 votes

8y

I dont see how its possible that the filter clogged that bad in under 2 months. Are you sure it was replaced before she moved in?

Living in the south our system runs virturally everyday of the year and we live in a forrest and have extreme pollen as well as a dog. My wife keeps a clean house though and we regularly change our filter every 3 months. and it barley even looks dirty.

Dennis Wasilewski

Real Estate Agent · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2017 · 184 posts · 87 votes

8y

Above all else - use the cheap woven filters and not the crazy hypoallergenic ones. Any HVAC tech will tell you even in the best circumstances they choke the return air.

Jim K.

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

8y

@Michelle Felux

I don't think collecting on this $75 is worth the headaches down the line it could possibly cost. The issue of furnace filters in SFR is always a thorny one. This is a difficult lesson that if you're self-managing and doing much of your own maintenance, you can expect that the burden of replacing filters is always going to ultimately fall on you. It is also, as had been indicated, a good excuse for routine inspection of your property

But there's a lot of other stuff around this problem, there's mess that needs to be addressed. You're at three properties right now and self-managing. Self-managing has its pluses and its minuses for both you and for your tenants. The main plus it has for your tenant is that the lines of communication with the landlord are open and accessible.

But here's trouble, and three months into the lease now, your new tenant gets a lesson about how you handle trouble -- you send an impersonal, officious letter highlighting section 19B and 21A of the lease to demand payment. It's as much a caricature as a fat, floridly mustachioed police officer pounding down a doughnut in a Crown Victoria.

Does the tenant have your telephone number? Do you have hers? If so, then clearly the reason for the letter is to avoid a frank and open discussion. So where does the landlord-tenant relationship go after this letter? As a self-managing landlord myself, I've avoided sending such letters except when I have to, and I always make the phone call first and the letter is a legal formality that comes later.

Now, will I do business differently if I get to fifty doors and in-house property management? Of course. But the nature of my business will also have significantly changed. My tenant will know that she's one of fifty, not one of three. By ten doors I plan on routinely pretending to any new tenants that I'm a paid employee, a property manager just making ends meet myself, and not the actual landlord. I'm certain I'll still make the call, of course, if I'm not paying an actual property manager already by 10 doors because I'll be sick and tired of this garbage.

This business with home warranties, as indicated previously, is a total waste of money. These guys operate just like new car service people -- any maintenance cost that can be avoided for the promised years of zero-cost maintenance is avoided and then the car's a lemon that needs big bucks in neglected maintenance as one after another system fails, exactly as it was designed to. Granted, the hustle can't be as perfect with houses as it is cars, because the design of the house is not dictated by the home warranty people, as the design of the car is dictated by the same people who sell you manufacturer's service, but that's how it works. You cannot trust home warranty representatives and their dubious credentials any further than you can throw them. You need a local HVAC guy you can lean on, one who is preferably a fellow property investor and understands your business.

You need to learn the basics of every cooling system of every home you self-manage, and that entails a basic familiarity with furnace fundamentals. How big is the home? Is the system sized properly for the home? What kind of filters should you use and exactly how often and why should you change them out? If you haven't had these sorts of confabs with your HVAC guy, you're shooting yourself in the foot. For instance, if you had made the call about fixing the house to your HVAC guy, and he had gone over there, you would know exactly what's what instead of what you have now, a big bundle of question marks from a source of dubious veracity.

What your tenant will very likely do once she gets the letter is post it on FB and complain about what a pain in the neck her new landlady is. There will be five friends on her friends list who desperately want to be liked who will confirm for her that yes, you are a terrible person. There will probably be a couple that bring up the point that that changing filters every month or the A/C coils freeze doesn't sound quite right, just as is being done here.

Having a regular HVAC guy inspect the setup from the start would have kept this a nonissue. You would have an understanding with him.

The other thing with the light cover and the cleaning company is another dead giveaway that you're trying to run with the hands-off approach before you can walk. Back door locking bar is also something you should have looked at more closely.

Do you have a go-to handyman yet? These random maintenance costs are going to keep eating you alive as a landlord. I am the go-to handyman of our little outfit. It's 5:30 in the am as I write this on the East Coast. I'm off with my wife to a duplex that I'm renovating in a few minutes. After 6 pm, I have to go to a tenant's house to do an installation of a gas dryer that the HD delivery people who were supposed to have installed refused to take down to the basement because there wasn't enough space to maneuver it down the stairs (and they were in a hurry). If we had to rely on third parties for this sort of thing we'd already be bankrupt doing this business -- the costs would just pile up and up. Now granted, I'm sure my situation and my properties are significantly different from yours, but the same maintenance principle that holds up in medicine holds up in landlording, just like you, your house needs a poorly paid primary care physician first to direct the flow of expensive specialists afterwards, and the better the primary care physician the more money you'll save in care costs.

I apologize for the rambling but I'm in a hurry. Good luck, Michelle. I sympathize more than I could possibly express.

Amy Beth

Rental Property Investor · Edison, NJ · Member since 2016 · 753 posts · 565 votes

8y

I would not count on a tenant to change the air filter. I would suggest giving her proper notice and stopping by once a month to change the air filter. It also gives you an opportunity to check out the property and notice other problems early on instead of having a surprise when the tenant moves out or calls with a problem which has been building up for months.

David S.

Investor · Prairieville, LA · Member since 2015 · 311 posts · 424 votes

8y

@Michelle Felux I was in agreement with you until I saw that it has been 2 months since the filter has been changed. Unfortunately and in my opinion quite inaccurately, many filters state that they must be changed every 3 months. The tenant can argue that it has not been 3 months, therefore they are not responsible. I specifically state 30 days in my lease and I also warn tenants of the inaccurate idea that it will last 3 months. Since, you stated that is was a good tenant, I would send a warning letter that next time the tenant will be charged for repeating this behavior. And while alot of folks dislike the pleated filters because they clog easily, they better protect the AC coils. The cheap ones don't clog, but everything ends up in the evaporator coil. This is an expensive repair if the coils are so dirty that they have to be removed to be cleaned.

Dick RosenPro Member

Property Manager · Gilbert, AZ · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 451 votes

8y

All sounds good, it's actually a more thorough explanation than I would ever give my tenants. Regarding the payment, I also have a statement in my lease that says that any additional charges such as this are to be considered collectible as rent. So when the next rent payment comes in it would be applied to oldest charges (the AC charge) first and rent would then be short paid. The unpaid rent then accrues late fees, they will then promptly get it paid.