What do you do when a tenant calls saying they have no heat? How fast do you react & how fast do you diagnose the problem?
This morning I had a no heat call from a tenant. Usually these calls go directly to voice mail. However I just happened to be by the office phone when she called so I actually answered it before she could finish leaving a message. She was very surprised that someone actually answered the phone during non business hours. This is how I handled it.
1. I asked when she 1st noticed it. Turns out it was last night about 10:00 but knew she would survive for the night & didn't want to bother me. She just wanted me to know so I could schedule a repair for Monday.
FYI this building has 4 units & each unit has their own natural gas for heat, hot water & cooking.
2. I asked her if her stove was working & she said yes. This tells me there is gas going to her unit. Strange as it might seem some tenants don't realize that if their gas gets shutoff they loose their heat.
3. I asked her if she had hot water last night & this morning. She said there was plenty of hot water. Since this unit gets it hot water from the boiler via a super store this told me the boiler was working.
4. I asked her if the light in her Tstat was working & was the Tstat set to heat. She said yes to both. This told me that it most likely was an issue with the circulating pump.
I told her I would be by within the hour to check things out. She said that they were going out so no one would be home. When I got there she was gone.
First I went to the boiler room to see what the status of the boiler was. According to the lights on the Taco control everything was normal & neither the super store nor the heating circulator were calling for the boiler to fire. When I jumped the heat zone, the exhaust damper opened, the boiler fired & the heating circulator came on. I left it jumped long enough for hot water to circulate thru the system. Now I knew that the issue wasn't in the boiler room so I went up into her unit.
When I checked the Tstat I found that it was switched to heat, the lights worked (tells me batteries are OK) and the temperature was set high enough so the boiler should have fired. Then I noticed that the Tsat seemed to be slight loose from the base plate. I removed & reinstalled the Tstat to the base plate. This seemed to cure it. I'm guessing that when my helper replaced the Tsat batteries the other day, he didn't properly reattach it to the base.
In the fall when we change out the SD & Co batteries we also change out the Tsat batteries. I'll make sure that my helper checks to be sure it properly reattaches the Tsat before leaving the unit.
I left her a voice mail & sent her an Email letting her know the heat was working. I like to use Emails to help establish a paper trail incase a problem should arise..
Now before some of you jump all over me for answering the phone & actually doing a service call on a Sunday morning let me explain why I did it.
1. She is a long time tenant who pays in full & on time
2. She takes excellent care of her unit as well as the common areas
3. She wasn't demanding that I have someone come instantly to fix it
4. I was going to be within 3 miles of the building anyway
5. By putting eyes on, I would have a better idea of what the problem might be. This would enable me to make an informed decision on whether it was something that my helper, my plumber, my electrician or myself should take care of.
6. I find it rewarding to problem solve things like this
--96.237.xx.xx