Should the Law require you to provide Air Conditioning? … Deerwood Realty and Friends…Ep. 32

Intro

We get an article out of Portland that talks about air conditioning for tenants….this type of article comes out across the country during the summer, especially when there is a heat wave. Unless someone has lived without Air Conditioning their whole life, Air conditioning is a necessity now. While Air conditioning was a luxury and optional 50 years ago, times have changed and we need to keep up with this particular thing.

Thoughts/Questions

1. My thought is simply that if the unit is rented and it has air conditioning to start, the landlord should be responsible for keeping the air conditioning running during the entire time of tenancy.
2. Gray area: I would not restrict someone from ever getting a window unit on their own. In 2021, this just seems obvious. People have become conditioned to air conditioning.
a. The tenant should get acknowledgement that the air conditioner is owned by them
b. The maintenance should be on the tenant.
c. Who is paying for the additional electricity? Depends on the lease, of course…are the tenants responsible for the electricity? If so, then there isn’t an issue. If the tenant pays the landlord for utilities, an adjustment should be made.
3. Theft of air conditioning units…I do know that there have been times where there is a theft of the unit on move out. It stinks for the landlord. However, there are risks in renting properties…unfortunately this is one of them.
4. Should it be a law that the landlord must require Air conditioning? I don’t think so. I think renters should look for places to live that have air conditioning and rent those places over the ones that don’t. That would force the landlords to provide air conditioning or lose occupancy of the unit.
5. I reject the game of knowingly renting a unit that doesn’t have air conditioning for a lower rate than one that does and then complaining about it. Rental rates exist for a reason. I think people get tricked when they want to make a law about something in a case like this. People aren’t stupid. They know what they are doing.

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Source: https://katu.com/news/local/landlord-provides-tenants-with-ac-while-lawmaker-considers-whether-it-should-be-the-law

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