Broken AC unit

[Dman883]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
May 8, 2015 Property manager reports that the AC unit is not cooling and needs a recharge. I order the recharge. AC company delays filling the request due to weather.
May 20, 2015. Property manager now reports that the unit is broken (damaged capacitor ignited the freon). Now requires extensive repair or replacement.

My question: If the unit was run knowing it had no freon, an issue known to be VERY harmful to AC units, but was not shut off, am I the only one responsible (home owner) or does the tenant or property manager bear some responsibility for not repairing the unit sooner and running it without freon?

 

[Gail in Georgia]

How would you plan on proving to anyone (i.e., a court of law should it come to this) that the tenant continued to run the unit without freon, damaging it because of this?

Do the repair (or replace if needed) and take the cost of such off your tax bill.

This is the price of doing business as a landlord.

Gail

 

[FarmerJ]

At any point was the tenant given / sent written instructions that directed them to not use the unit until it was repaired and who took steps to make sure the unit could not be used while waiting for this part ? (steps being shut off power to the unit, Dc thermostat temporarily so it could not be used ? ) I figure if you were to be able to legally point a finger and win a claim you ought to be able to show a court what was done to prevent further use of the unit till it could be repaired and how the tenant was notified to cease use till it could be repaired !

 

[justalayman]

First, R-22 nor R-410a are flammable.


2nd; if there was no freon there was already a much bigger problem than a simple recharge would take care of


3rd. If it was low on freon there is a leak that needed to be repaired. More than just dumping some refrigerant in the system.

4th; no, it is not very harmful to run an AC when it is low on refrigerant. Low on oil? Really bad but unless there is a leak it would not be low on oil. Usually you aren't going to lose oil unless you have a catastrophic failure.

Do you actually know what happened? Do you know what is actually damaged?

If the unit was cooling at all there was some refrigerant in it.

When was the last time you had the evaporator coil cleaned? Do you change air filters often or require the manager or tenant to change them very regularly?