Will American Home Shield replace my AC? Any good home warranty companies? July 13, 2009   Subscribe Can I expect American Home Shield or any other home warranty company to replace my A/C when it dies? Are there any other good, reliable home warranty companies out there? My current contract with AHS is about to run out. I have a 25+ year old A/C unit that probably doesn't have much time left. I also have a 12 year old water heater. After reading many reviews like these I am wondering if AHS will actually pay for a new unit. The warranty is supposed to cover these items, but it seems like most people either get excuses or are blamed for poor maintenance. Have you ever actually gotten a unit like this replaced? Should I renew my contract? It looks like pretty much all the other reviews for home warranties are just as bad. Are there any home warranty companies that are actually good?Average Whole House Air Conditioner Price    0% Interest Offers Available > 2 Ton 13 SEER R-410A Split System Central Air Conditioning System

This single phase 13 SEER sweat air conditioning system is designed for residential and commercial applications and consists of the outdoor condenser, indoor cased coil, and 30 ft. line set. The compact micro-channel condenser is charged with R-410A refrigerant and has a top air discharge. The cased coil is filled with dry nitrogen, and is designed to be used with the metering orifice supplied with the condenser. The Line set is 30 ft. in length and has a 3/8 in. liquid line and 3/4 in. insulated suction line. 2 Ton 14 SEER R-410A Split System Package Air Conditioning System 4 Ton 14 SEER R-410A Split System Package Heat Pump System Keep your home comfortable all year round with this high quality and efficient 14 SEER heating and cooling heat pump system. Litigation / Trial Practice A class action lawsuit filed against Goodman Global, Inc., and certain affiliated companies, alleges that central air conditioning units and heat pumps sold under the Goodman® and Amana® brands since 2007 are defective. 

In particular, the plaintiff contends in his lawsuit that these units have defective evaporator coils. Evaporator coils are generally located inside a consumer’s home and they are essential to the proper functioning of any central air conditioning system or heat pump.  According to the lawsuit, Goodman and Amana central air conditioning and heat pump systems contain defective evaporator coils that improperly and prematurely leak refrigerant (a.k.a. Freon®).  The defect allegedly renders the systems inoperable because the cooling cycle will not work without refrigerant. Although Goodman sells these units with a warranty, that warranty is limited in a way that provides insignificant protection to owners of the units.  In particular, the Goodman warranty, by its terms, covers replacement parts, but not the labor costs associated with the replacement.  According to the lawsuit, the result is that, when a defective evaporator coil fails, Goodman provides the owner with a replacement coil, but does not pay to have the old coil removed or the replacement coil installed. 

As alleged in the lawsuit, those labor costs typically run in the hundreds of dollars, and in some cases, thousands of dollars.  car a/c repair las vegasThus, in at least some instances, the owner is forced to spend as much or more to replace the defective evaporator coil as the cost to purchase a new Goodman unit.new air handling unit The complaint also alleges that Goodman has known that its units sold since 2007 contained defective evaporator coils, but the company failed to inform consumers about the problem or issue a recall.  installing a window ac unit in a wallIndeed, according to the lawsuit, Goodman continued to tout the quality of its air conditioning systems—claiming they were durable, dependable, and long lasting—even though it was aware that the defective evaporator coils would cause the units to fail prematurely and at rates far above the industry average.

The lead plaintiff in the case acquired his Goodman unit when he purchased his new house in September 2011.  According to the lawsuit, in or about July 2013, after only one summer of use, the unit stopped cooling the plaintiff’s home.  A service technician allegedly found that the unit was low on refrigerant and added four pounds of refrigerant, which immediately leaked out of the system.  After observing this, the technician determined that the evaporator coil was leaking and needed to be replaced.  According to the complaint, the service technician returned the old defective evaporator and replaced it with a new one, charging plaintiff approximately $650 for this service. The civil action was filed in North Carolina state court on behalf of all consumers in North Carolina that purchased a central air conditioning unit or heat pump bearing the trade names Goodman® and Amana® from 2007 to the present. To read a copy of the complaint, click here.Whenever you fix or replace something in a rental unit or building you need to decide whether the expense is a repair or improvement for tax purposes.

Why is this important? Because you can deduct the cost of a repair in a single year, while you have to depreciate improvements over as many as 27.5 years. For example, if you classify a $1,000 expense as a repair, you get to deduct $1,000 this year. If you classify it as an improvement, you'll likely have to depreciate it over 27.5 years and you'll get only a $35 deduction this year. Unfortunately, telling the difference between a repair and an improvement can be difficult. In attempt to clarify matters, the IRS has issued lengthy regulations explaining how to tell the difference between repairs and improvements. Implementation of these rules was delayed but they became effective on January 1, 2014. For more details on current vs. capital expenses refer to the article Current vs Capital Expenses. If You are a Landlord Maximize your tax deductions, including how to deduct repairs and losses, depreciate improvements. Check out Every Landlord's Tax Deduction Guide »

Under the new IRS regulations, property is improved whenever it undergoes a: Think of the acronym B A R = Improvement = Depreciate. If the need for the expense was caused by a particular event--for example, a storm--you must compare the property's condition just before the event and just after the work was done to make your determination. On the other hand, if you’re correcting normal wear and tear to property, you must compare its condition after the last time you corrected normal wear and tear (whether maintenance or an improvement) with its condition after the latest work was done. If you’ve never had any work done on the property, use its condition when placed in service as your point of comparison. An expenditure is for a betterment if it: An expenditure is for a restoration if it: You must also depreciate amounts you spend to adapt property to a new or different use. A use is “new or different” if it is not consistent with your “intended ordinary use” of the property when you originally placed it into service.

To determine whether you’ve improved your business or rental property, you must determine what the property consists of. The IRS calls this the “unit of property” (UOP). How the UOP is defined is crucial. The larger the UOP, the more likely will work done on a component be a deductible repair rather than an improvement that must be depreciated. For example, if the UOP for an apartment building is defined as the entire building structure as a whole, you could plausibly claim that replacing the fire escapes is a repair since it doesn’t seem that significant when compared with the whole building. On the other hand, if the UOP consists of the fire protection system alone, replacing fire escapes would likely be an improvement. New IRS regulations require that buildings be divided up into as many as nine different UOPs: the entire structure and up to eight separate building systems. An improvement to any of these UOPs must be depreciated. As a result, more costs will have to be classified as improvements, rather than repairs.

The entire building and its structural components as a whole are a single UOP. A building’s structural components include: For example, replacement of a building’s roof is an improvement to the building UOP. In addition, the following eight building systems are separate UOPs. An improvement to any one of these systems and must be depreciated: Example: A landlord purchased an apartment building five years ago for $750,000. This year he spends $5,000 to fix wiring in the electrical system. Under the old IRS rules, the $5,000 likely would be considered a repair because it is relatively small compared to the overall cost of the building, which was treated as a single UOP. Under the new rules, the electrical system is a separate UOP. This means that the $5,000 must be compared with the cost of the electrical system alone, not the cost of the whole building. This makes the expense seem much more significant and likely to constitute an improvement. For the latest IRS rules on repairs and improvements, see IRS Bulletin 2012-14, Guidance Regarding Deduction and Capitalization of Expenditures Related to Tangible Property.