All Forum Posts by: Bethany Phillips

 I just went ahead and bought a washer from a local appliance store that can deliver and install the new washer on friday. (2 days). they will place the samsung one to the side and i will deal with that separately. im so relieved and wish i thought of this sooner. now i will have an extra washer in case one breaks again or to use for a future property. I had no idea there was such a difference in delivery/repair times with local stores vs larger companies. But its all a learning process, and lesson learned! the only thing im still not sure of is how i could have gotten anyone out there sooner to tell me that it was broken, since again it had to be under a samsung approved service provider in order for the pending exchange to be covered under warranty. but hopefully this helps someone learn from my situation! 

 Yes, i understand that the warranty is not of the tenant's business. However, I am asking for advice on how I could have gotten this done quicker? Given the circumstances, I feel like I was doing everything within my means to have it fixed as quick as possible, I am looking for what you would have done differently in my situation. I guess i could have kept calling service providers samsung works with under warranty but I figured if 2 companies were both booked out far in advance chances were they all would be (also not sure how many service providers they work with anyway.) The only thing I can think of is to have bought a new washer out of pocket and dealt with the exchange separately, then put the new washer samsung provides in a storage unit. But this would cost me a lot of money and the new appliance provider also would take awhile to deliver and install im guessing based on how long everyone else is taking with everything else.. 

 hmmm, im not sure if i could have had a better handle on it. In order to have this covered under warranty, I could only work with the service providers samsung approved of. When the first two service providers samsung gave me could not come out for a couple of weeks, i went ahead and booked an earlier appointment with sears even though that meant it would not be covered under warranty. Its honestly a blessing that Sears never showed because I would have had to pay Sears for coming plus then still had a samsung-approved service provider out just to tell me the same thing, that it needed to be replaced. Today they told me it will take 7-14 business days for the exchange to happen. They said they would email me the trucking companies info so that I could have them let me know when the unit arrived, in order to speed up the process of booking an appointment with them for them to do the exchange. Of course they never emailed me, and the link they provided me yesterday when the ticket was created has no helpful information. I had asked on the phone if I just went and got a new washer myself if they could handle the exchange later and they said no, it would not be covered under warranty if i did that because they "do not do exchanges with home depot." (Where I bought it from.) In this situation, what would you do to handle this quicker? I really have exhausted all options I can think of. I am new to this and trying to learn as much as possible, so I really appreciate all honest feedback. I am looking into getting a property manager who can handle these things better hopefully in the meantime 

How would you go about finding who the “regional rep” is? I called them this morning and they said it’ll be another 7-14 business days before the exchange can happen.. I tried complaining to the guy on the phone that it had already been broken for 3 weeks and I shouldn’t have to wait another 2 weeks for it to be replaced but he said the ticket for the exchange was just created yesterday and they cannot take responsibility for the speed of the other departments. I told him that was ridiculous because this is one company. I asked if I could go to Home Depot where I originally bought it from to get a new one myself and they can take care of the exchange later and he said no, it wouldn’t be covered under warranty if I did that because they “don’t do exchanges with Home Depot.” I feel sort of hopeless, I know the tenants are going to be very angry and I feel like there's nothing I can do to make this go faster. I would love to complain to someone but I tried googling samsung regional rep in my area and nothing came up. Sorry if im being naive, very new to this 

Hello, I was made aware by one of my tenants that the washer was broken on sept 14. I called my handyman immediately, who was able to get there two days later to take a look at which point he informed me it was out of his scope to fix it and since it was still under warranty I should have samsung come fix it. This was on a Saturday, I called to have it fixed, they created a ticket, and on Monday they were supposed to call me with a date when they’d come to fix it. They never called so I called them Tuesday. They gave me an earliest appointment of oct 2. The tenants were distraught it would take so long to get fixed, and asked if I could try to get someone in there sooner. I said okay, I can try to see if someone out of the warranty can come, but this means I would not be able to commit to the original rental discount I had promised for the month because of the inconvenience of a broken washer, since this new servicer would have to be out of warranty aka I’d be paying out of pocket. They said that was fine. I made an appointment with sears for the earliest available date-sept 26, which the tenants were happy about. Come to sept 26, sears never shows up. I had cleared my day and sat around waiting all day-nothing. After what felt like hours of trying to get a hold of a real person, I got it rescheduled to the next day. The next day comes and they still never show. I call again, they say someone from the dispatch team will call me (to this day no one has called.) So I call the original servicer under warranty that same day (Sept 27) who can still come oct 2 thankfully. I let the tenants know and they are understandably upset. I reassure them that since it will now be covered under warranty again, I can give them a discount. I gave them $100 each off the rent. So for the month of October, I charged $3000 instead of $3300 for one unit with three tenants, and $1400 instead of $1500 for my other unit with one tenant. Oct 2 comes and they reschedule on me to today, oct 3. Today someone FINALLY comes, and they say the washer is broken and needs to be completely replaced.. They say they will call me by tomorrow to give me the date they can do this on. I tell the tenants, and they say “omg a month without a washer, this is crazy!” I reassure them that I understand this is obviously frustrating, but I have been doing everything in my power to get this fixed as fast as possible. I am at the mercy of the speed of the service people. This is out of my control and I have been diligent with what I can do to get this issue resolved etc. I have been highly communicative and transparent this whole time. They respond by saying “I know you’ve been doing what you can to help I’m just saying it’s annoying that this has taken so long of course I’m sure for you as well as for us. The laundry mats have also been very expensive last time I went I paid $50 and that’s just for me. Since we don’t really have a date for when it will be fixed and I am in dire need of going to the laundry mat again would you be cool with continuing to discount us for the laundry receipts in the mean time. I will be going again to the laundry mat tomorrow.” I don’t really know what to say to this. I feel like I’ve been taken advantage of. This washer is brand new and has only been used by them. If anything, if I were them I’d be apologizing (worried I was the one who broke it and worried I’d be getting charged extra by my landlord.) I have already given them $100 off rent EACH for the month of October, and they want more? Are laundromats really that expensive? $50 for one person for one visit? Mind you, this is a furnished, utility included 3 month lease. They just extended for another month and a half and I also agreed to discount that rent to $3000/month. I feel like I’ve been very generous. What do I say?

Looking for recommendations for a property manager for my rental home with 2 units in providence, RI. First time homeowner as of October 2022 and landlord as of august 2023. I can manage finding tenants, background checks, rent and those things for now with the possibility of those becoming your duties later on. I really just need someone to communicate with tenants for any issues that may arise and coordinate services accordingly (deal with handyman, cleaners, lawn/snow services, etc.) This may involve letting people ie services into the home and possibly show the upstairs unit as well. It's a single family home converted into two units. The downstairs unit has a tenant that will be there until august 2024. The upstairs so far has been used as a STR for travel nurses who are there until either November or December of this year. Looking for someone relatively cheap as the duties don't include much, and that I can pay on a monthly basis instead of paying a % of rental income or $ per each new tenant since that gets complicated quick with STR's and I will be finding those tenants for now anyway. Thanks in advance

Hello, 

New owner and landlord of a single family home that i split into two units with a shared laundry room. My tenant from one of the units this morning called me to let me know the fire alarms were going off. I actually missed the first call but he texted me and then proceeded to call me several times until I answered. He mentioned several times that he was trying to sleep and wanted to know what to do. Obviously I said if there was an actual fire or any smell of gas to leave and call 911 but he said there wasn't, they went off randomly. The upstairs tenants also said they were all asleep at the time they went off. I informed him I wasn't able to get to the house right then and there and that he'd have to try to disable the alarm himself by pressing a button on the smoke detector or taking the batteries out. He said he would but all the alarms were going off and none of them were lighting up to indicate which one was the original source, so he didn't know which one to do. He finally disconnected the one in the laundry room and said the downstairs ones had stopped, but the upstairs ones were still going off. He started to go upstairs to help those tenants disconnect one also but shortly after getting upstairs they all stopped without any further intervention. I told them I will head over as soon as I can to reconnect the smoke detector in the laundry room and change the batteries in them just in case. (hoping they don't all go off again at that time.. yikes). But unless this happens again, I don't really see a reason to inspect every single smoke detector in the house just yet. I said if it does happen again of course I will get an electrician out there to check and have my handyman check all of the batteries in them/see if any of them need to be replaced. I just bought the house less than a year ago and the fire department did a walk through at the time of the purchase of the house and I noticed after that that some of the smoke detectors were new but I can't remember if all of them are definitely new. When I go change the batteries and reconnect the laundry room smoke detector I will also inspect for dust, bugs, and humidity level (I already bought a dehumidifier i'll bring with me and install just in case it was that.) But anyways, any other tips for dealing with smoke detectors? I know they can be a bit tedious but I wasn't sure if I was missing something obvious here and don't want to be neglectful. What should you tell tenants to do in those situations? I was honestly kind of shocked he persistently called me as if there was anything I could do about it immediately. I've been a renter myself in many homes for many years and can never think of a time I called the landlord while the smoke detectors were actively going off. Sure, I probably let them know it happened just in case they needed to be attended to but I usually just pressed buttons on it or took the batteries out until it stopped and let them know afterwards. I was just a little frazzled and didn't know what to say. I have a handyman who can go there with notice but I myself live far away. Thanks for the advice! 

Hello, I am a new landlord of a single family home that I split into two units and as it starts to get colder in RI I was wondering if anyone can help explain the city of Providence's ordinances regarding snow removal. For my current tenants I have in the lease that I will take care of the snow removal (I will have to pay someone to go do it since i'm a long-distance landlord. I am thinking of having them do the front path entrance and stairway to the first unit, the driveway which belongs to the first unit, the path to the entrance of the second unit, and maybe the deck/deck stairs or at least a pathway on the deck to the slider-the deck is shared between the two units and the slider leads to the first unit.) But for future reference, I am wondering if I should put in the lease that it is the tenant's responsibility. I started to research the legality of this and of course I cannot for the life of me understand it. Please help explain!!: 

a)All owners or persons having care of any property bordering any street, highway or public place within the city, shall, within the first eight (8) hours of daylight after the end of any snowfall, or the fall or deposit of snow or ice on the sidewalk of said property, from any cause whatsoever:

(1)Remove or cause to be removed all snow or ice from a path not less than three (3) feet in width the length of the sidewalk of the entire border in or on said street, highway, or public place, including from any pedestrian access ramps cut into street curbs bordering said property and, for corner lots, from the portion(s) of the sidewalk extending past the property to and including the street curb, and provide for the treatment of any snow or ice remaining on any shoveled sidewalk, with sand, salt or other suitable material;

(2)Remove or cause to be removed all snow or ice from around any fire hydrant on the sidewalk bordering said property; and

(3)Remove or cause to be removed all snow or ice from the opening of any catch basin bordering the sidewalk of said property.