What happens when your apartment springs a leak?

As a landlord and as a tenant, one of the worst days you can have is when there is an issue in the apartment.  How do you deal with it?  Whether it is a leaky ceiling or a broken refrigerator or a busted heat system, it is natural to overreact, but the key is to stay composed and understand that both sides are under stress, but hopefully the situation can be resolved quickly and with minimal interuption.

We just had a situation where that didn't happen.  It involved a broken refrigerator in early July (not a good time for a broken refrigerator, obviously).  The refrigerator broke down just a few days after new tenants moved into the apartment and, understandably, the tenants wanted a soultion to this issue quickly.

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My advice to tenants:

1. Call the owner (or property manager if there is one) immediately.  Explain the problem and ask them what should be done
2. Be accomodating and respectful to the owner
3. Understand that events are sometimes out of an owner's control.  Delays in shipping of materials needed, contractors dropping the ball, etc do happen.  Hopefully that is out.

My advice to owners:

1. Have a good list of contractors and vendorsin the event of a problem.  Angie's List is a great resource (you do need to pay for a subscription) or ***see our list here***
   
2. Call contractors ahead of time
3. Think about hiring a property management firm or contact the leasing firm you used for help (especially if you are out of state).  If you used a reputable leasing firm to find your tenants, they should be willing to help (we would, for sure).
4.