I have a tenant that just moved into one of my rental properties (a condo) last month and now water damage has occurred from the upstairs bathtub that has caused water to come through the ceiling that is visible from downstairs.

I've called a plumber to come out and they will be there tommorow afternoon. The tenant has an 11 month old and likes to take baths with her baby. The way she tells the story, she was taking a bath Monday night, then later that night around 3am she came downstairs to get something out of the kitchen and that was when she noticed water in the kitchen, She looked up and saw water dripping from the ceiling. She didn't want to call me right away because she says it didn't seem to be an emergency, which is why she says she waited until around 9:30am to call and tell me.

There is a homeowner liason person who that's been living at the condo complex for at least 15 years and he says he's seen it happen dozens of times over the years with the units. He believes that there was so much bathwater that started pouring through the overflow valve that it was too much water for it to handle and therefore leaked through. Either that or the overflow valve was "dry and cracked" so when the water did get to the overflow valve it went through the cracks in the valve and therefore dripped through to the first floor.

When the plumber comes out we will see what the plumber says caused this. Some things come to mind.

1. Is the tenant at fault for these damages? This may be a loaded question because I don't know yet what the plumber will say. If the overflow valve was cracked then I guess I can see where I need to pay for this to be fixed, I'm just finding it very hard to believe this could be a coincidence because......

2. I personally lived at that property for almost eleven years, took a number of baths, and NEVER had anything like this happen. I moved out in September, she moves in with her baby in October, and BAM! This happens. How and why?

3. Can I legally tell the tenant I need her to be more careful with how high she lets the bathwater get? Obviously I want her to know that her and the baby can still take baths but can I legally tell her to watch out and observe when the water is getting close to the overflow valve and let her know that the overflow valve is the MAXIMUM height for the water to go to but not a TARGET or a GOAL for her to let the water get to that height?

4. I'm fairly certain that once this is fixed this time I will definitely let her know that if this happens again she will definitely be responsible for repairs.

5. The good news is that I do have a security deposit from her. F it's found out from the plumber that there was no crack on the overflow valve and this is simply something that she caused because of a continuous occurence of water overflow then she is at a minimum partially responsible for this. She may complain saying "She didn't know" and to a certain extent I might be inclined to agree to a partial extent, but it really gets under my skin that this has never happened before and now that she's in there with her baby it's happened after less than a month.

How would YOU as a landlord handle this situation?

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