My cousin owns a house in NC and it's already rented. She gets repairs done fast and now the central air unit broke and cannot be fixed because it's too old. She is willing to buy Heat and Cool window unit for all 3 rooms but the tenant is wanting central heat and threatening to leave. New central heat will cost $3500 which my cousin don't have currently to use on a new central air unit. Tenant signed a full one year lease in Aug this year, can they legally leave?

No where on the lease it says specifically that heat will only be provided through Central air unit.

11/4/2008 4:26:35 PM

No.

11/4/2008 4:27:43 PM

that's a great question...for an attorney. if the lease doesn't specify whether HVAC is included and delivered by a particular means, i would assume that she could put in the window units, provided that they sufficiently cool the space.

i am a real estate broker, not an attorney. that's my two cents.

11/4/2008 4:29:36 PM

This lady at Remax is managing the rental property I m talking about and she told my cousin. Tenant is thinking of terminating the lease because he wants central air and you'll just get to keep his security deposit. When I was a tenant my landlords told me either you leave today or at the last day you gotta pay us each month. But this Remax lady is throwing us off, which is why now we are confused. Basically the guy opened a restaurant and it didn't go as well now he wants to leave town I believe so he's pulling all kinds of tricks.

[Edited on November 4, 2008 at 4:49 PM. Reason : h]

11/4/2008 4:47:58 PM

Yeah it may be a little more complicated than I'm making it but I would guess:

If there is nothing specifiying the use of the Central Air Unit, and the only language that exists is to the effect of "If plumbing, electric, air breaks it is fixed or a supplement(equal) is provided" then she is doing fine by the renter. If the renter leaves at that point they would be breaking the lease, since there is nothing of a hazardous nature about the house. Just an inconvenience at best. In which case you would be able to push for whatever was written in about breaking contract.

Sounds like you need to sit down and find the specific language defining this(broken units, non-functioning services, or utilities) and show it to the renter and the Remax agent once you have understood it all yourself so they are all on the same page.

[Edited on November 4, 2008 at 4:57 PM. Reason : added info]

11/4/2008 4:52:24 PM

I would really suggest talking to an attorney. There are all kinds of ways that tenants can get out of leases--breach of the implied warranty of habitability, constructive eviction, etc. Since it doesn't specify how heat was to be maintained in the lease, I'd think your cousin would be pretty safe, but no one wants to litigate over a breach of lease from the perspective of the landlord or the tenant. Maybe let him break the lease as long as he finds another person to take over in his place.

11/4/2008 5:02:07 PM

Here's what I would do. I own property, and I really don't want someone renting it if they don't want to be there. If the guy wants to leave, more power to him. Just keep his security deposit and use it to install new AC units. You could also rent the place out for a bit less and use the deposit to offset the loss.... (ie if the deposit was $1200, rent to someone else for $100 a month cheaper, thus attracting tennants more rapidlierest).

11/4/2008 5:07:56 PM

Quote :

"can they legally leave?"

no

but heat is required for occupancy

11/4/2008 5:27:54 PM

if its not in writing it can work both ways. Depends on who has the better lawyer.

and don't be a landlord if you don't want to take on the responsibility

11/4/2008 5:34:24 PM

Those window units are horribly inefficient and the tenant's power bill is probably going to go up. I can't say I'd be too happy about it either.

It sounds to me like she needs to hurry up and decide what she is going to do because right now the tenant does not have heat which is reason for them to leave. I think the "right" thing to do is to bite the bullet and put in another central system even if she has to finance it. Raise the rent next year if you need to do so.

Now if she decides to do the window unit thing she needs to be prepared for the possibility that the tenant will break the lease. Is she really prepared to sue him/her for the loss of income? Is she really prepared for the possibility that the tenant will sue her for the deposit?

11/4/2008 5:43:16 PM

My cousin told the Remax management lady to find out how many window unit they need and tenant says he wants to move out. My cousin have spent lot of money on the place and she can't afford tenant to move now.

11/4/2008 5:49:31 PM

Your cousin's financial status is not relevant in any way. The only thing that is truly relevant are the laws governing real estate. It's not the tenant's fault your cousin is broke. Sounds like she better hope the laws are in her favor.

[Edited on November 4, 2008 at 5:55 PM. Reason : l]

11/4/2008 5:54:30 PM

ok I just read some forums and a lot of people are saying only Military people can break the lease without penalty if they are being deployed.

11/4/2008 8:13:54 PM

^ there are lots of legal ways to break a lease.

11/4/2008 8:17:00 PM

^

please provide a few examples. I mean my cousin didn't refuse to provide them heat it's just in a different form. Instead of central air it's window unit.

11/4/2008 8:39:26 PM

If you look at my post above I said this:

Quote :

"There are all kinds of ways that tenants can get out of leases--breach of the implied warranty of habitability, constructive eviction, etc."

Pretty much, if the Landlord screws up, there's relief for the Tenant to get out of the lease.

11/4/2008 10:37:02 PM

how is it screwing up? on lease it was not specified that heat will only be provided through central heat unit. My cousin is providing window units to heat the rooms to solve the problem. I don't see how the tenant can just get up and leave. Maybe some of you can tell me how.

11/5/2008 6:10:51 AM

Just get the central air and heat. seriously. 3500 bucks. Putting window units in will decrease the value of your property by more than that.

11/5/2008 7:13:52 AM

The point isn't necessarily that she "screwed up" but that her Tenant was paying rent to lease a home as it was when the contract was signed. It is no longer like that, and unless the Landlord fixes the issue, then the Tenant MAY be able to find a way to get out of a lease. Although the law at the point predominantly supports the Landlord, Tenant's rights are becoming more and more evident. The key point here is that although it wasn't expressly mentioned in the lease, it could have been implied by the fact that central heating was a part of the home upon the signing of the lease.

11/5/2008 9:06:56 AM

The heating unit broke, and instead of repairing it you replace it with a different type of heating altogether? Like someone mentioned, maybe those units cost a lot more to run. So should the tenant have to pay more per month in utilities than they were because the landlord wants to save money? I can't see that holding much water. You rent a property with working HVAC, even if it isn't in the lease I can see the tenant being able to get out of the lease easily.

11/5/2008 9:17:40 AM

I am not an attorney, but I did rent a unit while at NCSU and talked to an attorney (student legal) about an issue very similar to this one.

We were renting an old 2 bedroom with 2 window units. We moved in and kept them both tuned to 75 degrees the first month during August. The power bill came back and was over $700 dollars.

Needless to say I wasn't happy. However, student legal services basically told me the landlord has no responsibility to provide AC. Furthermore they can provide heat in any form except for a fireplace and that there was no cost ceiling to the provided heat or AC (since the heat was generated from the same window units I figured it would also cost $texas, which it did).

I'd say that in court you would probably win the case against the tenant. However, you have to ask yourself if you want a tenant staying at your rental unit who doesn't want to be there. They can do all sorts of nasty things that you wouldn't find out about until well after they move out and would not be able to pin on them.

I'd suggest trying to work with the tenant and get them to look for another renter.

[Edited on November 5, 2008 at 4:30 PM. Reason : .]

11/5/2008 4:29:49 PM

My cousin's attorney talked with the tenant today and tenant was all happy about getting window units installed.

11/5/2008 5:17:55 PM

Quote :

"Basically the guy opened a restaurant and it didn't go as well now he wants to leave town I believe so he's pulling all kinds of tricks."

Is it worth the time to keep him around if he's doing this kind of shit?


it seems much more likely to me that he'll just fuck around and not pay bills at all if he doesn't get his way. let him leave and find somewhere else to live, just so you don't have to deal with the bullshit later on.

11/5/2008 5:29:01 PM

He's Asian

he will pay the bill because he don't want to ruin his credit score. I know most Americans don't care about credit and just bitch later when they gotta pay high interest rate on a loan. I m not a racist just stating a fact.

11/5/2008 5:34:51 PM

good lord. Engrish...

11/5/2008 6:04:04 PM

If I was that renter I would make sure to make your cousin pays the electric bill. Seeing your cousin is cheap as hell she will probably get the cheapest units, which are very, very inefficient. She got very lucky.

11/5/2008 6:10:22 PM

$535 + tax each is Cheap?

she is buying four of them. Some of you need reality check, most of you always bitch about minor stuff.

[Edited on November 5, 2008 at 6:16 PM. Reason : LIFE IS A BITCH it's not fair]

11/5/2008 6:15:53 PM

"$535 + tax each is Cheap?"

Well dang, if she's going to be buying more than one then she might as well go ahead and do the $3500. I'm almost positive a constructive upgrade such as central air would be something of an investment into rental property that could be used to reduce any taxes she might have to pay on any gains.

I'm no CPA, but I'm thinking I might be on to something.

11/5/2008 6:33:44 PM

Wow that just makes your cousin a giant idiot. To spend 2500 bucks instead of 3500 installing window units which will probably break in one year and only have a one year warranty. And I do believe YOU came here for opinions and to bitch about something you just called minor.

11/5/2008 8:44:47 PM

this thread is full of [fail]

11/5/2008 9:01:17 PM

Yeah your cousin needs to go ahead and replace HVAC. The loss can be deducted off her taxes this year.

There is no reason to spend $1500 and devalue the house with an inefficient system that everyone will hate when for a couple of grand more she can add value to the property, get some tax shelter, and keep the property marketable for future tenants.

The problem is they do not sell lower efficiency systems anymore so when your shit goes the whole thing needs to be replaced. Your cousin is actually fucking herself in the long run if she does not do the upgrade because the wall units are going to be obsolete as soon as she puts them in.

11/6/2008 12:27:25 AM

Oh yeah and get some more bids for the HVAC replacement. She might get a bid that's 500-1000 lower if she calls around.

11/6/2008 12:39:09 AM

I fel moar dummererest aftar rading this posts

11/6/2008 1:39:53 AM