Tenant Error Repairs

Repair Turned Out To Be Tenant User Error. Who pays the repair bill - The Tenant or Property Owner?

The tenant submitted to maintenance request for her refrigerator. The damage submitted was equipment profusely leaking. A picture was sent with a significant amount of water under the fridge. An appliance repair personnel was sent to assess the damage. He was able to get there pretty quickly. He found that something was caught in the door which was affecting the gasket, in term causing the refrigerator to condensate, and all that liquid was literally just condensation coming down.

The question is, who's responsible here? The tenant had something blocking the gasket of the fridge. There was nothing actually wrong with the fridge besides the fact that she had something blocking it. Obviously, what would be fair here is this would be a tenant expense. The tenant should have to pay for that diagnostic visit, which was about a hundred dollars. For a technician to be able to drive all the way would incur transportation expense and diagnostic which usually attract a base fee. Different companies or individual apply rates according to their fee listings. Overall, it the appliance is in good working condition an due to tenant's negligence, the landlord is not responsible in some conditions.

Author:

Joe White

Joe White is a Philadelphia Property Manager and Real Estate Broker. He is the owner of Grow Property Management and has been involved in the management, sales and purchases of Philadelphia area rental investment properties since 2008. He is an author and works as a real estate investment consultant and construction manager.

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