Topic: Do you ever issue rent credits for no heat?

Question for my garden style friends out there ! Do you ever issue rent credits for no heat ? If so, how do you base your credit ?

no LOL we fix the issue through emergency maintanence

I know, but my question is regarding the tone of residents that have heat issues for longer periods of time. Do they ask for a credit ? If so, do you give them one.

I always ask the resident what they have in mind. Let them set the bar. Very often they want less than we would have offered. If it is way too low, then when you come back with something better, you win at customer service. If they are outta control, then at least you know they are being unreasonable upfront, and you can act accordingly. BTW, we always have a few space heaters on hand just in case.

Thanks, Colin. We do as well. Right now only one is asking for a credit but 24 units were affected. We all know how that goes ; once you give one credit, everyone starts knocking on the door.

We don’t reimburse for hvac..

How long have they been affected? What’s the temperature? What was the cause of the issue?

No. Fix it.

If it’s on going or out for a long period of time because maybe parts or whatever it may be then I do. It’s all about customer service and caring for your residents. With in reason of course. Nothing crazy.

Rent credits are usually issued to make the resident "whole" so this would mean they had to live elsewhere until the heat was fixed. If the resident has renters insurance, renters insurance may pay for motel stays if the apartment home is not habitable. Therefore, you would have no need to issue any rent credits in that case. If insurance is not required and most residents don't have coverage, and the apartments are not habitable due to no fault of their own, as a good will gesture, your company can issue rent credits as long as a receipt is received for the lodging expense (with the total expense capped at a certain amount.) Those who go stay at Mom's house would not be reimbursed since they aren't out any money. It can become a PR nightmare though for residents to go without heat for an extended period of time, so you need to mitigate that as soon as possible, in my opinion.