Getting my landlord to fix the leaky AC took 4 months, lost 2 window units worth of power

I kept telling my landlord our AC was leaking refrigerant and running nonstop since June. He sent a handyman who just cleaned the coils and called it done. By the time I pushed hard enough for a real HVAC tech in September, we had wasted about 5,000 extra kWh. That's like running two window units 24/7 for those months, all for nothing. The fix was a $40 valve seal that the tech swapped in 20 minutes. Has anyone else dealt with landlords dragging their feet on climate-friendly repairs?

2 comments

2 Comments

irishenderson11d ago

Friend of mine had the same thing with their heat pump last winter. Landlord kept sending a guy who'd just vacuum the vents and say it was fine. By February the system was just blowing cold air and they were using space heaters in the bedroom. Finally got a real HVAC guy out in March, turns out the reversing valve was stuck and it was a 15 minute fix. Their electric bill that winter was almost double what it should've been and the landlord didn't care one bit.

noahhall11d agoMost Upvoted

$80 extra a month for a bandaid fix that didn't work.