My tenants called me early this morning and told me that their electric furnace isn’t working at all.
They explained that it is 50 degrees in the house and that the temperature keeps dropping.
This is definitely an emergency. It was 30 degrees outside and scheduled to drop below 20 before the next day. I called up my furnace repairman and paid for the emergency furnace repair. He called me about 2 hours later and said he was at my tenants’ home and that the electric furnace would need to be completely replaced. He also said that it looked like they had hit it with their car. He took pictures of the furnace and their car for me. It sure does look like they hit the furnace with their car. At that particular residence the electric furnace is in the garage. It is a nice big garage and I have never had any issues with collision damage before. However, it was very cold yesterday. I could see how someone might be driving into the garage a little too fast, try to slow down, hit ice, and crash into their own electric furnace. The problem is proving that this is what happened. Of course, I paid to have the furnace replaced. I don’t really have a choice. I am responsible for keeping it running. Besides, if I don’t then the pipes will freeze and I will be out even more money. I would, however, really like to be able to charge my tenants for this damage. With the pictures I feel that I can do it. After all, how else would the electric furnace have gotten caved in like that?