1)Call the guy up nicely, and say look, is ok if I just send you a few ice trays?
If yes, great.. if not, proceed to #2
2)After figuring out that it will probably cost $300+ to repair the ice maker (parts plus bend over american labor, if you can’t do it yourself). Call up the guy 1 week later. Give him a choice. Tell him, if you want, you’ll give him a one time $200 credit off of his rent if he agrees to never bug you again about the ice maker and use ice trays instead.
(If it were me, I’d take the $200 and use ice trays). Make sure you get it in writing…(email/snail mail.. Absolutely no verbal agreement..)
3)If #2 doesn’t work, tell him you’re gonna replace the fridge because it’s not cost effective to fix the ice maker. But that with a new fridge, you’re not going to include an ice maker (I hope it wasn’t on a the contract explicitly saying you need to provide an ice maker)..So in this case, you’ll have a new fridge without an ice maker to deal with in the future.
Don’t forget to get a handyman to go there and turn off the water supply line to the fridge BTW…. Shouldn’t cost that much to do…. $50?
Next time, before you rent out to a new tenant. Disable the icemaker and supply line to the fridge. Make sure you’re very clear to the new tenant. No icemaker/fridge water if you physically can’t remove the icemaker from the fridge… You really don’t want to have to deal with side/uncessary nice-to-have shit… It’s just extra stuff that can break that a tenant might end up asking you to fix….In general, the less crap there is too break, the less you have to deal with it when it breaks in front of a tenant. If it wasn’t there to begin with, he/she wouldn’t be complaining that it’s not working…On one of my rentals, I removed two ceilling fans and replaced a more complicated shower head with a simple, no frills one for that reason…
