Do I pay for my tenants hotel room?

[Ralph Miller]

Yesterday my tenants AC broke. They needed to spend the night in a hotel room because the AC repairman couldn’t make it until the next morning at 11am. I’ve been researching the requirement about whether I need to reimburse my tenant for the night in the hotel room or how that whole process works. Can anyone point me in the right direction or provide a website for me to review? I keep finding different policies. I am in the state of Missouri. Thanks!

[Jennifer T.]

Wooowww, smh.  As someone who spent 5 days without a/c...in New Orleans, in August, with 95 degrees...when a tropical storm knocked out the power in most areas, your tenants sound ridiculous.  I realize people have different temperature sensitivities, but still.  It's unpleasant, but manageable.  Especially with a fan.  I could potentially understand longer than a few days...and even that would depend on how bad the heat was.  But It was one night and the a/c was fixed the next day.  Unless you promised to pay for their hotel ahead of time, there is no way I would cover that.

FWIW, I do keep a spare window unit that has both a/c and heat.  JIC there is a temporary period of time when there is either no heat or no a/c in a house.  It pretty much only helps one room, but at least it is something if its more than a day or so for repairs/parts.