Tenant Complaining About Strength of Wi-Fi Network

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Tenant Complaining About Strength of Wi-Fi Network

Christopher Freeman
Rental Property Investor · Keene, NH · Member since 2018 · 115 posts · 73 votes

Hi all,

We have some college student tenants whom we inherited from the previous owner. Most of them are fine, but one of them is very needy. The legacy lease provides internet, which we have provided and which works in the common areas of her unit, and which also works in two remote bedrooms (albeit not at lightning speeds) via a Wi-Fi extender that we provided as a courtesy.

My business partner has tested the Wi-Fi in her bedroom three times, and has been able to connect and load webpages. He also watched the tenant connect and load webpages. My understanding is that she is not able to stream Netflix on her smart TV. She's complained to her father, who is a co-signer on her lease, and he has gone into helicopter parent mode harassing us to "fix" the problem. Based on the content of his messages, we have learned that the tenant is feeding him misleading information about her complaint (we believe that she is trying to avoid taking responsibility for the fact that her complaint does not pertain to her ability to do schoolwork as she has maintained, but rather to watch Netflix).

The lease states that landlord provides internet. It does not state that we provide Wi-Fi, or guarantee coverage in all areas of the apartment. We aren't trying to screw anyone on technicalities, but we've already provided a free extender, and offered to give the tenant a $50 credit towards purchasing her own extender if she feels that would help. I believe that we met the requirements of the lease when we made internet available within the unit, and exceeded it when we provided the extender and offered to help them buy additional equipment. 

I don't want to train the tenant to expect technical support on her devices from us, and I also don't want to spend the next three months test driving equipment and configuring tenant devices on the network. In my last email, I told the tenant's father the the technical support he is requesting is beyond our expertise, the scope of our business, and the requirements of the lease.

Based on this background, do you feel we are being reasonable? How would you have handled this situation, and is there anything we might do differently in the future to help manage tenant's expectations from the get go?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

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Anthony McEvoyPro Member
Investor · Champaign, IL · Member since 2018 · 160 posts · 114 votes
8y

@Christopher Freeman: I feel you have gone way above and beyond if that is how the lease reads.  Next step... I would take out the Wifi and leave them a modem.  They can connect their own Wifi to the modem provided... or are you providing Wifi to the whole building?

Honestly... look at the future of the tenant.  College student... so not a long time tenant most likely.  If she was someone that had the potential to be there for 5 years, then I may try a little more.

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  • Leland S.
    Developer · LA, Nashville TN · Member since 2015 · 295 posts · 75 votes
    8y

    @Christopher Freeman - sounds like if you can load up a speed test and show a 1Mbps connection anywhere in her room, you've done your job. Netflix can be a bandwidth hog and when I've had network troubles it simply won't load. Not your problem. Since you have a 100Mbps connection router I'd think it should work, but since you're only getting 1Mbps you might try turning off the range extender and trying the speed test again in her room. If it's worse, than keep it, but an extender shouldn't need to be so close to the router, maybe 50ft away. 

    Also, call your ISP and ask them to investigate. They should do this for free. You can login to your modem/router and turn up the power and or change the channels it uses to a less busy channel. This should be in your ISP's instructions. Also, make sure you have her connecting to the 5GHz wifi connection from her TV. 

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  • Bryan Cork
    Colorado Springs, CO · Member since 2017 · 117 posts · 45 votes
    8y
    @Christopher Freeman Hey man, sorry to hear this is such a pain in the *** for you. I have been in the residential telco business since I was 21 years old and now I’m 41. So needless to say I’ve seen it all. The best and most reliable answer is to drop an Ethernet cable into that room from your main router. The tenant can buy there own wireless AP if they wish or just hard wire whatever device they want to stream Netflix. If you have an attic or crawl space this will be fairly simple. And if installed correctly this solution will last for years, unlike most WiFi hardware. Also I doubt it’s a bandwidth issue in the sense that you just don’t have enough. Some structures just create WiFi shadows that you have to deal with, or run an Ethernet cable to compensate. Keep it simple and good luck. If you want to talk on the phone about this PM or email me and I’d be glad to talk to you about it.
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  • Jesse Moran
    Lees summit, MO · Member since 2013 · 32 posts · 25 votes
    8y
    @Christopher Freeman sounds like you could have spent that money on a better WiFi router to extend it further than the internet provider would. I bought one at Walmart for $80 with multi-signals and it travels well. WiFi extenders will connect the signal strength that it gets from where it is located at and then gets even weaker and slower from there.
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  • Amber Gonion
    Real Estate Broker · Hugo, MN · Member since 2016 · 688 posts · 596 votes
    8y
    @Christopher Freeman while I think you are within your rights to do nothing. The fact that you are looking at students as your future tenants I think you need to figure out the problem. I would hate to be showing the room to a prospective tenant and have to tell them that you can load web pages, but can’t stream Netflix in this room. Once you solve the problem you should be good for years after.
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