New AC/heat thermostat on brand new heater/AC broke during the summer. Tenant works for electric HVAC company and suggested I use them. I did. Big Mistake

My regular HVAC guy and heater installer, came to turn on the heat last week. Could not make thermostat work with heat and said he would come back Monday with a new one.

I stopped to check on upstairs tenant today and he told me that the heat was on. Downstairs tenant had a truck there yesterday with no signs on it. Must be his employer.

Since the guy did a bad job with the AC in summer, I am concerned about the quality of his work and regular HVAC guy is coming tomorrow.

I will get him in the building to put his new thermostat on. Making changes to the building heating system without permission is a lease violation. Obviously they were cold, and it got fixed. It was forty degrees last night.

Would you cite them on a Cease and Desist Notice for having someone come without my permission?

If they won't let my guy in, how do I cite them on a Cease and Desist? How much should I take before I make a Notice to Quit? Obviously I am glad they were not cold but I don't trust this guy and he could miswire the heater and cause damage.

In Texas, we have a certain number of days to address a habitability issue before the tenant is allowed to do a deduct-and-repair. Deduct-and-repairs aren't allowed to be performed by a company the tenant works for, or has an ownership interest in, or family members, etc.

In this case, it doesn't sound like he's doing a deduct-and-repair; he's doing unauthorized repairs in a multi.

The mistake was hiring someone who's right next door to hiring a tenant to do work on your house. So that set precedent that it was okay for Company A to come in and do something with permission-- and now he feels like he can invite Company A to come in and do stuff without permission.

This is so wrong on so many fronts. Forget blaming tenant--- when you hire work-- and when it's complete-- are you that lazy you don't go check it out? You apparently took the easy way out by using tenant for cra p work-- didn't even check it out and now you want bail out?

Sure you will figure it out.

AllyM,

From now on, you get over there for any problem (like A/C-Heater), and don't authorize any new sub to work on your property, without screening.

Also, put it in your rental agreement: "Tenant shall not call, contact or invite any subcontractor for estimates, bids, opinions or suggestions for repairs, solicit upgrades, services, replacement of fixtures, etc on the property tenant is renting without written approval of LL. Such a violation will be ground for eviction".

Been there, done that.

Years ago, I was out of town for the weekend, a tenant invited a plumber for a leaky toilet, who charged her $475 to replace a flapper. She tried to pass the bill to me. On Monday I called the plumber and told him to return the money or I'd call the State Contractor's Board. He said: Please don't call them, how about half the price since it was on Sunday?

You misunderstood, MYOB. I did not hire the tenant to fix the thermostat in the summer. He works for XXXXX Electric over in the next town as the office manager. They do HVAC as well as electric. They didn't tell me the AC wasn't working for several days, so on a Saturday he got his qualified co worker to come out and put a new thermostat on. I suspect the tenant slammed something into the thermostat in the first place. I paid the HVAC guy from the tenant's workplace.

Now I stood right there while the tenant's coworker from XXXX electric and HVAC installed the new thermostat and saw that the AC worked. He did not try it with the heater to see if that worked because it was hot out. This week I found out it did not work with the heater because my regular heater guy came out and could not get the heater going with the thermostat that was installed. I suspect that it is not a double use heat and AC thermostat. So I unwittingly paid for a bad job.

Now I will have my heater guy come out tomorrow with the correct heat and AC thermostat if there is not now one on the wall installed by the XXXX HVAC company and I will ask my heater guy to make sure the guy didn't screw up any wiring in the heater.

Vee, faulty stat was taken by the repair guy in the summer from XXXX HVAC company. I suspect that they slammed something into it as it is at the end of a hallway between two bedrooms. My HVAC guy will put the same kind back in tomorrow hopefully.

AllyM is always a little crazy. I get that. But why did you call a new company to repair work that had just been done by someone else?

Ally that's why I thought this was so wrong--- just wasn't like you to do that.

We had a ya-who cowboy HVAC guy who was going to school for that type work-- and practicing on our unit in our rental. When he broke it he called us to fix.

PLAY TIME is over---- we sent an immediate STOP that and sent him the bill for "fixing" . When he didn't pay we evicted him.

AllyM: Actually, I think Dan is more accurate -- even for your state. A quick search shows that New Jersey officially calls that first notice a "Notice to Cease." It is not called a "Cease and Desist Notice" (which generally is used only for illegal activity, but may be used for contract disputes in some states). Note that "Notice to Cease" is NOT required in NJ for actual illegal activity in your rental -- which feels a bit backwards to what we normally think of "Cease and Desist" letters being for.

Again, not a big deal, but if you're going to argue that "all states are different", then it probably makes sense to double-check your own state when someone suggests that you may be incorrect. In this case, again, your state specifically calls it a "Notice to Cease." A "Cease and Desist" is a different notice for different things and doesn't really apply to residential lease agreements from what I could find.

- John...

Sounds good -- glad you checked and adjusted your view.

Not a big deal -- I was just defending Dan a bit. Glad to see he was correct.

- John...