It’s going to be a late summer

I’m never sure if my landlord is a nice guy, or an awful one. He’s that strange blend of person where you can’t quite tell if he’s just clueless, or being purposefully obtuse to get out of paying for anything. Regardless, my landlord is trying to get out of one of the key aspects of caring for his property, and my roommates and I have about had enough. Last month we went downstairs to inspect our basement for water damage. Our town had recently suffered a bad bout of flooding, so our landlord asked us to please do a walkthrough and let him know if we found anything. If we discovered any damage or flooding, he promised to have a guy out here ASAP to clean out the water and make any repairs necessary. Well, while we were relieved that our basement is still dry and safe, we discovered another small horror. Our oil boiler is properly ancient. As we’ve never had any issue with the central heater, we’ve never thought to bother checking on it before. The year the boiler was first built is 1986. What’s worse is the tag from the local HVAC company. Kind of like a library card, it details what maintenance was done and when it was performed. The last recorded date of maintenance is from three years ago–the same time my landlord starting leasing the house out. I called the landlord to let him know that the basement was fine, but we needed a central heater inspection ASAP before winter properly set in. He doesn’t believe the oil boiler even needs an inspection. I told him that the average boiler only lasts for 20 years, and this thing is 16 beyond that. He finally consented to have an HVAC contractor out next week.

cooling unit