Landlord Question
 

For a friend of mine in the Bay area.

Received his water bill and it was through the roof. $300.00

Turns out the toilet in the basement is faulty and has been running for some time unnoticed. (He just got back from a two week honeymoon.)

Water company won't give him a one time courtesy consideration because he has not had service at this address for a full year.

So his question was, is / can the landlord be held responsible for any or all of the excess use?

I assume one of the answers will be he needs to check his lease to see what it says.

But if it the lease does not specifically address that situation, tenant incurred unexpected expense due to malfunction of landlords appliance, is there a precedent?

If there is no provision in the lease for this, and most residential leases do not address this type of thing.

Tenant will obligated for the water.

If the tenant had record of contacting the landlord because of the broken toilet prior to the high use period that would be up for discussion depending on the state.

Probably not covered in the lease agreement. Here, utilities are in the tenants name and their responsibility. That said, I bend over backwards to keep "good ones" happy...works well for me. If I were the LL, I'd offer to pay half, or maybe even all if it, less their normal amount if it were "my" stuff that caused it...that's chump change in the big picture IMO.

Makes sense.

Thx

If I ever need a rental in Greensboro I'm looking you up.SmileWavy

Contact the landlord and see if they will work with him. Although a $300+/quarter water bill is normal for my area...

Also get into the habit of shutting the water off if everyone is going to be gone for more than a couple of days. I travel a lot of work and got into the habit of shutting the water off. Be just my luck to have a pipe break while I'm gone for a week.

How would the landlord know the toilet is leaking? Is he responsible to come by every few days to check?

I guess you know where I am coming from. A toilet starting to leak into the bowl is a very common failure mode that is tough to prevent by preventative maintenance. It can easily be seen and heard if you have all your senses. IMHO once you take ownership of the property, it is your responsibility to ensure everything works properly and to alert the landlord in a timely manner if something is going sideways and hurting you financially.

$300 sounds like it has been leaking for longer than a couple weeks. A quick calculation will tell you that it had to be leaking at over 1gallon/minute. That's going to make enough noise you will hear it from upstairs ...

Just my two cents. All reasoning aside, I don't think there is a law that will allow your bud to stick it to the landlord.

G

Not $300 over average.

Just a higher bill.

How much I did not ask.

+1.

The people who give me money every month are my customers. I want to give them excellent customer service.

Whose name is the utilities in? If the landlord, pay up. If the tenant, his problem. From the sound of the op, the landlord is on the hook for a one-time (unless he doesn't fix the toilet) charge.

Up here the City is the water & sewer supplier. They past a by-law which makes the owner responsible if the tenant bails. They don't even try to collect. 30 days past due the bill is sent to the owner. Don't pay them it goes on your tax bill. Don't pay that and good bye house.

^^
Same in my town. If the tenant doesn't pay, it's on the owner.
This was just recently enacted. Not a problem, rents are higher, deposits doubled, keeps the riff raff out of our middle class town.

+1000

300 bucks in the bay area sounds like a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things considering the cost of housing.

I bet the landlord would love the guy to leave so he can rent it to the next guy plus 15%

Its not the landlords fault he took a 2 week honeymoon with a leaking toilet.

Now that the guy has grown up and got married its a great time to start being responsible.

On a side note when I take off on 2 week vacations ( hasn't happened in my first 44 years ) I always turn of water source for toilets etc.

The guys been in the place 2 months.

Landlord is happy to have him.

I get it, yes, the landlord can't possibly know a toilet will go bad.

Fair enough.

But the tenant can't know either.

Also fair to expect you are renting a place in proper working order that won't leave you with unexpected additional expenses that are caused by nothing you did wrong?

Yes / no?

He can always ask nicely. Maybe the landlord will split the difference? I have done so with tenants on items I was not on the hook for to show my good intentions. One thing that would help is if he fixes it himself and tells the landlord he'd appreciate a small cut on rent to help with the water bill. Fixing a leaking toilet is less than $20. Heck, i bought a brand new toilet at Costco for $85 recently ...

G

When I go to my other house (2-3 weeks at a time) I shut down the water heater and the main water valve. If anything leaks I don't have a huge bill and the water heater doesn't burn out.

These kids of things usually only happen to first time renters.

Wake up tax.

My house insurance requires a responsible person to check on an empty house at least once a week. What would have happened if the running water had overflowed for two weeks?
My leases now have a clause requiring me to be notified of a tenants lengthy vacation so a competent person (me or other ) can look in.
I,ve had 2 huge insurance claims over the last 35 yrs which were water damage while on vacations. A flooded ceiling when a pipe froze (tenants left a window open and heat off) and a second incident at my florida winter home when the town changed a water meter and turned my water back on (I had left it off) A cracked toilet tank flooded 2 rooms 1/4 inch deep for a month or more. $18,000 damage to a $65000 property.
The person responsible for the bill should pay it and if the tenant notify the landlord the toilet is broken. If the landlord is responsible for the bill they need to monitor the condition of their appliances to prevent a recurrence.