S. rents a house in Florida, and the refrigerator needs repair. Her dilemma is that her landlord wants to use a specific repairman, who is only available when S. and the rest of her household aren’t available to wait around. The landlord has offered to let the repairman in, but S. isn’t comfortable with having anyone in her home when she’s not around. What would you do?

I have a fridge that is broken at my rental house. It turns on but it is not cold enough in the fridge and my food has spoiled and I had to clean out the maggots and flies from my fridge over the weekend. My landlord wants to send a repairman, but it seems his repair guy is only available today to make fixes to his rentals. The problem is that our schedules do not allow us to be home to let the repairman in. The landlord said he can let him in, but I 1. Don’t want anyone in my home when I am not there and 2. I have a large dog at home and I have no idea how he would react to a stranger in the home.

I called them Monday morning to let them know of the problem, and told them we would be available until 2 that day. I called again today and asked if they could come tomorrow before 2 also, and they said the repair guy is only in town today.

Our schedules are full today, and we cannot seem to make it home.

I am not sure what to do now! Is the landlord not accountable to repair my fridge timely because I am not available to be at the house today? I mean he DID offer to let the repairman in, that just makes me very uncomfortable.

What would be a reasonable way to make this work?

I would crate or otherwise confine the dog, and ask a trusted friend to let the repairman in for me. (Since I work from home, I do this for friends when I can.) If that’s not an option, there are only two choices left: Trust the landlord, or take time off work. Or is there a fourth option that neither S. nor I have thought of yet?

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