Should Contractor Discuss the Repairs With Tenants?

Question

We have a plumber working on the property ( HOA hired) to fix the pipes between apartments.

She told the tenants the water heater should be replaced ( to get some business) even if I asked her don’t discuss anything with tenants- I have a text to her. And now tenants are requesting the repairs.

The water heater is old, but not leaking and working fine. The tenants never told us anything about it before. We were planning to replace it, but not right now.

Can we request HOA don’t sent this  plumber to our property anymore? Because it’s very unprofessional from her side.

How you are preventing contractors from discussing anything with tenants?

Usually we are ‘ babysitting’ the contractors, this was the first time we were not on the property during repairs.

Chris Seveney · Answer

@Ellen Nichols

Tell them the hot water functions fine. Then tell them they need to get their car tires replaced and you will replace them for $2,000. They also need to have their car painted for $5,000.

When they look at you and say what do you mean you say exactly, your car works fine and looks fine but you could always make it better.

Ellen Nichols · Answer

The update. we got a message from renters ‘ the water heater is goes very bad very quickly’

When we asked what happened he said, he opened the water heater (!) and saw something bad inside.. we have his text confirming that.

We were planning to change it ( not urgent ), but is it anything what we can do to prevent renters from ‘ fixing’ the appliances? It’s not the first time when he is doing this- a couple of weeks ago he had broken the faucet in the bathroom, ‘ working on it’ and we had to replace it.

How we can stop him from doing this?

Ellen Nichols · Answer

I understand your irony Chris))

But we are dealing with aggressive tenant who been calling me names.. They are requesting to fix something ALL THE TIME. Every month is something. And we do..

Now when the baby is born they may behave even worse..  I am afraid they may pour the water on the floor and tell it’s an emergency.

Our plumber ( not HOA) thinks it’s time to replace the water heater.. we had this conversation before. But I said while the old one is working fine there is no need to do this.. I really don’t want to spend these money, but I don’t want to deal with emergency.. ohh.

Ellen Nichols · Answer

We were asking the plumber for a quote to replace the water heater before. And I asked her don’t discuss anything with tenants after she brought it up to our neighbor ( the neighbor asked me is I am going to change the water heater. I said, how do you know? And she said, I have this plumber at my property now ( searching for a leak between the apartments)

So, it was the plumber.

Our tenants are requesting repairs all the time. This is the 6th request for 4 months. They got a baby and we were fixing everything immediately ( even if they broke something) But now we think its  too much.

Theresa Harris · Answer

You don't know if the tenant asked about the hot water tank and the plumber answered a question vs giving unsolicited advice.  Tell the tenant that the hot water tank is in good working order.

I've also had tenants try to add things on when I've had a repair person in.