My tenant just called me to tell me that the furnace stopped working.
This is the last phone call you want in the middle of the night when it is below zero outside.
I crawled out of my warm bed, got dressed, and headed out to my truck. Even the vehicle didn’t want to go anywhere and took a couple of tries to turn over. I drove to my rental unit and found the family bundled up under a pile of blankets. The temperature was down to around fifty and I knew I needed to get a repairman out quickly. I called a couple of HVAC dealers and finally found one that could be out within the hour. I also called a local hotel to arranged for a room for my tenant. They took the kids to spend the night there so that they would be warm. The technician arrived in a timely manner and set to work trying to find the problem. I worried that I would have a hefty repair bill due to the middle of the night call. It only took about half and hour for the repairs to be done and I was relieved to find out that it was only a wiring problem. There had been a mouse that had gotten in and chewed one of the wires. The service call took less than an hour and I had him change out the filters while he was there as well. My next call was to an exterminator to ensure that this sort of problem didn’t happen again. There are some really great HVAC companies out there,but, no matter which one you call, an emergency visit is costly. Always make sure to keep the area around your HVAC equipment clean and secured to avoid these types of calls.