Rental Property Investor · Saint Louis, MO · Member since 2016 · 50 posts · 30 votes
The main sewer line in a SFR backed up and caused some standing water around the drain in the basement laundry room. No damage, but it's Memorial Day and there'll be a holiday charge for the drain company to open the line (if commercial drain cleaner doesn't work). They're hosting a Memorial Day BBQ at their house and need it fixed before it starts.
Do I just pay the fee and be done with it or do I bill that back to the tenant?
I have to go back and check the lease to be certain, but assume for purposes of this question that the lease is silent on the issue.
You can try charging the tenant for the backed sewer bill however it's likely they will push back and refute your claim. You have a few options to fix the clog; you can try to unclog it yourself using a drain cleaner, snake it or hire a professional. With either of those options if you find that the tenant is at fault you can charge them and provide them an explanation of why you found it to be their fault. If not then I would just consider it as another maintenance expense that goes with owning a property
Get it fixed now and deal with the bill later. The longer the wait, the messier it gets. You do not want to have things go into the commode, not getting to the drain, and ends up on the floor.
if the problem can be identified and caused by the tenants (baby cloth wipes, toys, grease ... in drain) - bill them.
all others causes are just cost of doing business.
I have a clause in the lease tenants shall cover the first $100.00 cost of repairs. This should cover most of the nonsense repairs.
In the past, I have push back from tenants on this, saying when the move in, they can't be responsible for repairs that's deferred maintenance. So I thought about it, and agreed that this will not take effect for 90 days.
I had a tenant just moved in April 10, but didn't squawk about the $100.00 charge. Then 10 days later, there's a clog when they flushed the toilet, and stuff backed up. Got roto-rooter to come, found a number of things, the chief among them are tree roots, but nothing suggesting anything the tenant did. I paid for it, and mention to them "no charge", they were happy even though technically I could have. But I figured, that's only fair.
Another way of looking at it, and I only had drains unclogged 3 times in the last 10 years at this SFH.
After pulling 5 pounds of baby wipes from a drain I told my tenant if I ever found anything in a drain besides poop or paper, they were paying the bill.
Marcia Maynard has a nice clause in her lease that I copied that states something like tenant has received house with systems in proper working order, agrees not to put improper items down drains, and that tenant will be held financially responsible for any plumbing problems not related to tree roots or faulty equipment.
I'd go over with a snake and see if I could fix it first, but if it's backing up into the house, you'll need it seen asap, then determine if it is tenant damage or tree roots/faulty equipment and who should be charged later.