The water heater in my rental property went out yesterday. Do we need to be concerned about compensating the tenant until a plumber can install a new water heater?
Your first response should have been a call to your plumber to determine how quickly a new water heater can be installed. A failure to provide a tenant with hot water within a “reasonable” time after failure of the water heater could be a legal issue of habitability. Next day service to install a new heater may seem reasonable to you and might be reasonable to the tenant depending upon his household situation. There could be extenuating circumstances in the tenant household that might require an emergency replacement service call. If the household contains children, a family member who is ill, disabled or requires special care, the better response would be to pay for the cost of an emergency replacement service call. While the tenant/household may incur some inconvenience because of the service call, in the long run it is better to attend to the issue with immediate service. Be sure to follow statute requirements for notice of entry to the tenant to conduct an emergency repair.
The tenant may expect some form of compensation for the inconvenience and loss of agreed upon services. A frank discussion of the matter and its resolution should allow you and the tenant to reach an agreement on what is fair and reasonable compensation.