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A Guide to Keeping Your Tenants Content When the AC Breaks

Written by Posted On Thursday, 29 August 2019 09:21

Of all the breakdowns that can push tenants to the edge, an air conditioning failure is probably the worst. It’s a logical response; every heat wave fills the evening news with sights of sweltering people seeking refuge in fountains and fire hydrants. People just don’t want to be without air conditioning, so use these strategies to contain their frustration when your property suffers a breakdown.

Offer Relief

Most people are very understanding about any kind of breakdown, even in their homes. They just want to have some sort of temporary help. In the case of an AC failure, it may be as simple as providing some window units or in-room air conditioners to help them get through until repairs or made. Tenants with health concerns or young children might need a hotel room or temporary use of a vacant unit with working AC. The idea is to do what you can to ease their discomfort.

Plan Upgrades

Feeling cold air blowing again will make tenants a lot happier, but many will still express legitimate concerns about how long it will be before another malfunction hits. If you expect to get a grateful response from tenants after service is restored, you’d be wise to talk to them about what caused the failure and what steps you plan to take to prevent another breakdown in the future. Work with air conditioning maintenance services to establish a better plan for routine upkeep to prevent failures.

Give a Discount

Giving up revenue is sometimes a foreign concept to property owners, but bear in mind that your rent is calculated based on working AC. When you experience a prolonged outage, your tenant is not receiving the amenities that he or she is paying for, so it can be a gesture of good will to offer a deduction on the month’s rent. If this sounds frightening for your bottom line, remember that you’re likely to lose less money this way than you would be running off a faithfully-paying tenant.

When your property’s AC shuts down just as the mercury is pushing its upper limits, your tenants will obviously be distressed. The misery increases with each passing day. Misery soon translates into departing tenants, and departing tenants mean lost revenue. You can’t prevent every single burned-out fan or blown capacitor, but you can react to those outages in a way that will show you care about your tenants’ comfort.

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Lizzie Weakley

 About the Author: Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. She went to college at The Ohio State University where she studied communications. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and long walks in the park with her 3-year-old husky Snowball.

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