Searching for the True Story: A/C Investigation

Searching for the True Story:

A/C Investigation

I think one of the greatest joys of working in this industry is that you will never hit a point where you have seen or heard all that there is to see and hear. No matter if it’s in leasing, property management, billing, or maintenance; there is never a dull moment! I do believe that companies like ours could be a reality show series, and people would be absolutely hooked!

For example, let’s focus on maintenance. When it comes to tenants and work orders, sometimes the situation is very cut and dry. Maybe there is a leaking faucet, or a kitchen drawer that is off track, or maybe winter is on its way and the furnaces need to be serviced to prepare for the season. Normal everyday work orders usually aren’t any cause for concern. But, this is property management! We wouldn’t have any fun if things were mundane, day in and day out. And, we wouldn’t learn much of anything.

Which leads me to a story surrounding what we thought was a typical simple work order. We received a work order from, let’s call her, Maria. One summer morning, we received a work order from Maria, stating that she heard a very troublesome sound coming from the air vents. She was pregnant at the time, and she was very upset because it also seemed like the air conditioning (A/C) was not working. We, of course, called one of our trusted vendors, who, just like most vendors in the middle of summer, were scheduled many days out. We apologized and let her know it would be a few days before anyone could go visit the property.

Naturally, she didn’t want to go very long without the A/C. She wondered if we would consider using a vendor of her choice that would make it to the property a lot faster than ours could. Of course! We just needed their W-9 and a completed Vendor Agreement. We called and emailed Maria’s vendor multiple times over the next few days but never received a response. In the meantime, Maria was calling our office multiple times a day to see if we had made any progress.

As I mentioned, Maria was pregnant. She went into labor at some point during those few days, and called us from the hospital, desperately wanting the air conditioning to be fixed before they arrived home from the hospital. Luckily, our vendor made it out to the property. They let us know that it looked like the upstairs toilet had overflowed. The water ran down into the furnace as the bathroom was directly above it. There was rust on the beams and water damage on the bathroom floor. There was also a wet/dry shop vac plugged in right next to the furnace. The vendor was gracious enough to send us pictures along with a detailed explanation of how he thought it had happened.

We, in turn, let the tenant know what the vendor found. We spoke with Maria initially, who talked to her husband, let’s call him, Saul. Saul replied to us with a lengthy email, arguing that there was no toilet overflow and he was quite angry that we would suggest such a thing. He went on to admit what had, in fact, happened, started when he noticed that the air conditioning coils were dirty. In the humid state in which Maria and Saul used to reside, it was normal practice to hose down the A/C coils with water to wash off the dust. Instead of calling us to get a vendor out to clean the A/C unit, Saul decided to spray the coils with water. He thought the water would evaporate, but instead it dripped down into the furnace, causing the unfamiliar sound, as well as the issue with the A/C. In addition, the wet/dry shop vac was plugged in next to the furnace because Saul was working on a personal wood art project that required occasional cleaning.

Saul also did not tell Maria that he had done this, so to her, she really was calling in a maintenance request about weird noises and a non-functional A/C. Because Saul caused the damage, he was responsible for all of the repair charges, which he paid without contest. We can only guess that a leak did happen at the property at some point before we managed. But it goes to show you – collect all information from all parties, because within those facts, you will find the true story!

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Residential Resources: December 2017 Issue | Volume 28 | Number 11