From our friends at Five Star Property Management

Landlord or Tenant: Who’s Responsible for HVAC Service and Maintenance Needs?

Including HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) service in a rental is good for both landlords and tenants. It makes the home more attractive to renters and landlords can charge more in rent. Tenants, on the other hand, value the convenience and are happy to avoid the additional costs of installing their own AC. However, when a rental home includes HVAC service, it also presents challenges to the property owner and the tenant, in terms of who is responsible for maintaining the systems.

Maintaining a home’s HVAC systems is not a minor affair because there are so many things to look after. HVAC systems will often require the following:

 

  • Maintenance

The common HVAC maintenance tasks are cleaning and replacing filters, lubricating moving parts, inspecting exhausts, maintaining drain pipes, checking and sustaining refrigerant levels, checking thermostat levels, maintaining electrical connections, and checking voltage.

  • Repairs

HVAC systems will break down or malfunction from time to time, regardless of how well they are looked after. Repairs may be the result of the system’s age. Or can result from the weather. Other issues that cause HVAC malfunction are damage by pests, excess humidity, moisture infiltration, and encroaching plants.

  • Replacement

Eventually, the HVAC system will need to be replaced. The average life expectancy of HVAC systems varies according to the parts of the systems. AC, furnaces, and boilers have a lifetime of 10-15 years, and water heaters last around 10-20 years (depending on the type). But the system may expire prematurely if it is not properly maintained. It costs more to replace the system than it does to repair or maintain it.

 

Who should be responsible for the HVAC?

First, the landlord owns the HVAC system and the responsibility to make sure that the home is livable. To be livable, a home must have an HVAC system that is working to the tenant’s satisfaction. However, after the landlord has provided the HVAC system and the tenant has confirmed that it is in good order, the question of future responsibility now arises. And there are different models for how the question can be answered.

As can be expected in these situations, both landlords and tenants would like to see all or most of the HVAC maintenance responsibilities handed to the other party. Tenants claim that landlords own the systems and should be in charge of maintenance. Landlords say tenants should maintain the systems since they use them and may be irresponsible in how they use the HVAC.

 

In this regard, both parties have valid points.

 

There are three approaches to dealing with this difference of opinions. Landlords can use:

  • A model of shared responsibility
  • A model where the tenant pays for all the maintenance
  • A model where there are annual caps to what a tenant can spend

Shared responsibility

Under this arrangement, the tenant is responsible for all repair and maintenance of the systems, while the property owner is responsible for replacing them. This model is fairly straightforward but presents a major concern for landlords. How will they prevent tenants from failing to maintain the system and thereby forcing the landlord to replace it sooner?

 

The usual solution is to require tenants to have a contract with a qualified HVAC service company. By having a professional service company to maintain the systems, landlords ensure that filter changes, duct cleaning, and necessary maintenance are done as needed. Also, landlords may require the tenants to provide copies of the HVAC maintenance report.

 

The tenant is completely responsible

Naturally, this is the option favored by most landlords. Here the tenant is wholly responsible for maintenance, repairs, and replacement of the HVAC systems. But this model presents serious problems for tenants.

 

For instance, although replacing the system is the tenant’s responsibility, the newly-replaced HVAC is the landlord’s property. How should tenants resolve this problem?

 

If tenants feel that a unit is nearing the end of its useful life at the beginning of their lease, the tenant can request the landlord to install a new unit before they move in. If the landlord refuses to do this, then the property owner should give their guarantee that the system is in good working order. With regular maintenance and repair, a system in good working order should not need replacing until 10 years.

Capped maintenance spending

This is another model that is favored by tenants. Here, there are yearly limits to how much a tenant can spend on maintaining, repairing, or replacing the HVAC system. Once this annual limit is reached, all further maintenance, repair, and replacement costs are passed over to the landlord. In order to make this work, the tenant is usually required to have a contract with a professional HVAC maintenance company and make all maintenance records available to the landlord.

 

Which model is the best?

The best model depends on the specific needs and situation of a property. But as with most things in the landlord-tenant relationship, this one also requires communication, understanding, and openness from both parties.

Landlord or Tenant: Who’s Responsible for HVAC Service and Maintenance Needs?

  From our friends at Five Star Property Management Landlord or Tenant: Who’s Responsible for HVAC Service and Maintenance Needs? Including HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) service in a rental is good for both landlords and tenants. It makes the home more attractive to […]

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When you think of your A/C unit, you’re really only talking about 50% of what HVAC is really about. Your HVAC unit should be keeping you cool in the summer, and warm in the winter right? WRONG! The system is much more complex than that. Your HVAC system should also rotate and circulate air, along with purifying and keeping air flow clean, maintained and at healthy levels.

So why do we ONLY focus on Heating & Cooling instead of Ventilation & Air Quality…

For families of technicians and people that work within the home services & construction industry, air ventilation and air quality has always been a priority. That’s why when COVID-19 first fizzled on the airways, most HVAC companies invested and implemented whole home purification systems to ensure that the air quality within their quarantined quarters wasn’t compromised and they also advocated for clean air. Mommy Groups from all over the nation were approached by gorilla marketing efforts from LadyPros and other women from these industries advocating for safer homes and spaces by implementing safe solutions like the AccuCleanWhole-home Air CleaneriWave-RAir Scrubbers and REME Halos. The value of fresh air exchange or fresh clean air ventilation means that breathing quality indoor air is critical for good health. Most Americans spend a significant amount of time indoors—either in the home, office or other types of buildings—where gases, chemicals and other pollutants can cause headaches, eye irritation, allergies and fatigue – not to mention viruses and bacterias. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the immediate effects of poor indoor air quality will have health effects show up shortly after a single exposure or repeated exposures to a pollutant. These include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. Such immediate effects are usually short-term and treatable. Sometimes the treatment is simply eliminating the person’s exposure to the source of the pollution, if it can be identified. Soon after exposure to some indoor air pollutants, symptoms of some diseases such as asthma may show up, be aggravated or worsened. Certain immediate effects are similar to those from colds or other viral diseases, so it is often difficult to determine if the symptoms are a result of exposure to indoor air pollution. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to the time and place symptoms occur. If the symptoms fade or go away when a person is away from the area, for example, an effort should be made to identify indoor air sources that may be possible causes. Some effects may be made worse by an inadequate supply of outdoor air coming indoors or from the heating, cooling or humidity conditions prevalent indoors.

What are some Long-Term Effects of Poor Indoor Air Quality….
According to the EPA, other health effects may show up either years after exposure has occurred or only after long or repeated periods of exposure. These effects, which include some respiratory diseases, heart disease and cancer, can be severely debilitating or fatal. It is prudent to try to improve the indoor air quality in your home even if symptoms are not noticeable. While pollutants commonly found in indoor air can cause many harmful effects, there is considerable uncertainty about what concentrations or periods of exposure are necessary to produce specific health problems. People also react very differently to exposure to indoor air pollutants. The likelihood of immediate reactions to indoor air pollutants depends on several factors including age and preexisting medical conditions. In some cases, whether a person reacts to a pollutant depends on individual sensitivity, which varies tremendously from person to person. Some people can become sensitized to biological or chemical pollutants after repeated or high level exposures. So years from now, when you feel like you have sensitive air-pathways, remember that you spent a significant time indoors  under quarantined conditions which may have led to these conditions instead of actual exposure to COVID-19.

So what should be done to ensure your comfort isn’t compromised and you’re safe…
That’s easy – let the experts handle it – give us a call today 208-246-9716

 

 

Sources:
https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/introduction-indoor-air-quality
https://www.electricianoncall.com/post/can-indoor-air-quality-management-cure-or-fight-against-covid-19

https://www.rgf.com/article/hydro-peroxide-for-iaq/
https://www.rgf.com/products/air/reme-halo/
http://www.iwaveair.com/products/iwave-r
http://www.iwaveair.com/#advantage
http://www.iwaveair.com/#how
https://www.rgf.com/air-purification/resources/#REME
https://www.rgf.com/air-purification/resources/#PHI-Photohydroionization

Let’s clear the air

  When you think of your A/C unit, you’re really only talking about 50% of what HVAC is really about. Your HVAC unit should be keeping you cool in the summer, and warm in the winter right? WRONG! The system is much more complex than […]

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It’s hot outside and your AC is not blowing cold air like you expect it to.  This may happen for several reasons, but here are some common culprits:

Air Filter Problems

A clogged air filter can also create an opportunity for the flow of air to become slow.  This is because the accumulated debris prevents air from flowing through the filter media as easily as was the case when the filter was still new. Cleaning out or replacing such a dirty filter can cause the AC to blow harder.

The problem could also be due to the use of an incorrect filter for the AC in your home. Air filters have a rating for the amount of air that they can let through every hour. Installing a filter that isn’t rated for your HVAC system can slow down the flow of air around the home.

Make sure that you bought the correct type of filter for your AC by checking the user manual that came with the air conditioning unit in your home. Replace that filter with an appropriate one so that the airflow challenge is fixed.

Blower Malfunctions

The blower of the air conditioning system is responsible for forcing air to flow throughout the ductwork in your home. Any defect in the blower will result in a weakened flow of air to the different sections of your home. The blower may have been clogged by dirt to the extent that the blades cannot move freely. A thorough cleaning can fix this problem and get the blower working again.

However, you may need to have the blower motor replaced in case the motor has aged and can no longer work. This replacement project should be done by a HVAC repair technician since the process is too complicated for a layperson to perform.

A Frozen Evaporator Coil

The air conditioning system supplies cool air by passing the warm air from your home over the evaporator coil in the outdoor unit of that AC. Anything which affects this cooling process can cause a weak airflow. For example, a refrigerant leak can cause ice to form on the evaporator coil. Consequently, it will be harder for air to flow over that evaporator coil. You will then notice that the flow of air from the vents is weak.

Similarly, dirt can also accumulate on the evaporator coil and restrict the flow of air over that coil. This problem will keep worsening until the evaporator coil fails completely due to the accumulation of heat around it. Start by turning the AC unit off in order to allow the ice on the evaporator coil to melt. Next, use a soft-bristled brush to clean off any dirt which may be on the evaporator coil. Turn the unit back on and observe whether the airflow improves. Give us a call if the problem persists.

As you can see, some of the reasons for poor airflow can be fixed by a homeowner while others require expert help.

If you have questions or concerns about the performance of your air conditioner, give us a call today!

Why is my AC not blowing cold air?

It’s hot outside and your AC is not blowing cold air like you expect it to.  This may happen for several reasons, but here are some common culprits: Air Filter Problems A clogged air filter can also create an opportunity for the flow of air […]

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