Home Warranty - who pays for service calls?

[jeromedawg]

Hey all,

What is the expectation and norm when it comes to who pays for service calls while renting from landlords who leverage home warranty services. Do most impose that the tenants pay for all service calls regardless of whether the tenant caused the damage OR the appliance or whatever needed repair or replacement was due to normal wear and tear?

Or do most only require that the tenants pay for service calls when as a result of damage caused by them, and landlords cover the cost as a result of normal wear and tear? And if the latter, how is this determined? Based on the assessment of the home warranty company?

[Dicey]

First of all, I hate home warranties with a dedicated passion. Second, unless a tenant willfully destroys something (and how are you ever going to know it or prove that?) it's the LL's responsibility to pay the deductible, IMO.

A Home Warranty is no substitute for property maintenance.

And yes, I am a LL IRL.

[jeromedawg]

First of all, I hate home warranties with a dedicated passion. Second, unless a tenant willfully destroys something (and how are you ever going to know ir or prove that?) it's the LL's responsibility to pay the deductible, IMO.

A Home Warranty is no substitute for property maintenance.

And yes, I am a LL IRL.

I wanted to ask a couple simple questions so decided to try contacting the home warranty the prior potential landlord uses - I was on hold for over half an hour before hanging up (and they told me to expect a 27 minute wait). That impacted our decision *not* to rent from these landlords. We created an addendum to the original lease agreement to change the terms so that the home warranty copay would be the LL's responsibility for normal wear and tear (in addition to changing the liability and maintenance of landscaping, which they also tried to sneak in the lease) but I think we pissed them off in doing so, and dropped comms with us. Fine with me, but I'm not going to subject myself to renting from a slumlord, even if it's a ticket into schooling for our kids. Not worth the headache and hassle.

I agree though - these LLs seem to think that home warranty equates to property management/maintenance: "oh all these things are broken? Just call home warranty - it's *your* problem now" lol no thanks.

I'm sure you saw my other thread but we identified a number of issues (a couple major ones) that the LL also seemed to not want to bother with, and I'm 99.9% sure would have told us to contact home warranty and pay for the copay on those items *after* signing the lease. The notable issues were: non-working dryer and broken bathtub faucet redirect. Their place has been vacant since mid-April and they listed it early May. They originally were asking $200 above the normal fair market for these units. Prior tenant had major problems with them too - was living there for a year before moving out at the end of her lease, and warned us about how the LLs are stingy and made her pay for a lot of stuff that she shouldn't have paid for. smh...