Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The joys of being a landlord

I did a walk-through inspection of our Indiana rental property last Aug. 30 and discovered that the built-in overhead microwave oven and the stacked washer/dryer weren’t working.

We carry home warranty insurance on the place and I made the renter promise that day that he would call the 800 number and file a claim to get the appliances fixed. We pay for the insurance. It costs him nothing.

Fast forward to this afternoon when I got an email from the warranty insurance folks saying they were unable to bill us because we changed credit card numbers. In the course of the conversation, I asked if they had received a claim for service on the microwave and washer/dryer.

As I expected, they had not.

So I initiated a claim, having kept my inspection notes that included the model numbers for the appliances.

But it still falls to the renter to call the service contractor to arrange an appointment for service – the service contractor will not call him.

What do you want to bet he’d rather keep going to the laundromat and using his own countertop microwave than pick up the phone and set up an appointment?

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