Fort Leonard Wood, MO · Member since 2018 · 62 posts · 20 votes
Ok so there was a water leak about 5 feet from the meter outside of the home. The tenant notified me of the leak 27 Jan and it was fixed 3 Feb. I spoke with the water company and the leak began during the billing cycle between 20NOV - 20DEC. The bill was issued early January. Her bill at the time was 229, indicating a leak. She did not inform me until she received her second high bill from the cycle from 20DEC -20JAN, receiving the 514.92 bill end of January. I will agree to pay the first bill and for the usage from 27 Jan - 3 Feb ( when leak was fixed) but do not agree with paying for the remainder. My justification is due to the fact that her inability to pay her bills on time resulted in the leak being undetected for approximately a month! Am I right or wrong?
The first bill isn't high enough to have her concerned. The second bill is. She notified you as soon as she knew about the water leak. If the utility company will work with her, she may be able to not have to pay the bill, as there was a repair needed. If the bill does need to be paid, it is your responsibility as the property owner to come to a meeting of the minds on this. After all, it is your property, and hence your leak.
@Dan H., your water bill is about $500?! I live in the Desert of California as well with 2,500 sq. ft., family of 5, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 16 chickens, veggie garden and grass in front and back and mine is usually $150 during the summer. Do you trend average for your area according to your bill? That sounds like nightmare.
@Mike Cumbie I would Agree with you. Having worked in the construction business for many years my understanding is that the Property owner owns all of the pipe on the property side of the meter. Even though the tenant pays utilities the tenant does not assume responsibility for the infrastructure that supplies the water to the building. That conduit is owned and is to be maintained by the owner of the property. Sadly the property owner cannot make the tenants pay their bills to the utility companies in a manner that would have solved this problem quicker.I believe that legally The property owner would be found liable.
@Sam Martin it is stated in lease that tenant must pay bills on time with initials right next to it. I sought out legal counsel and my plan is legal and within reason.
@Sam Martin thats my bid dilemma. If she would have abided by the lease and payed on time the water bill would be half. Also the builder put an unwrapped sharkbite where my pipes connect to the meter which is what corroded. Bad practice but unfortunately no way for me to know unless i dug it up. House was built in 2008
it will probably be your responsibility, but i would have ger give me the previous month bill and reduce you're responsibly by that amount as she did user water during this time.
@Curtis Mears after seeking counsel the portion of my lease that calls for timely utility payments takes care of me. I am paying for what occurred up bill due date. The rest will be here responsibility. So ill pay aprox half.
"My justification is due to the fact that her inability to pay her bills on time resulted in the leak being undetected for approximately a month! Am I right or wrong?"
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You are wrong. Her responsibility for paying water bills does not give her the right to make structural repairs, which the leak requires. Also, YOU have to monitor your own property. Would it have been nice if she contacted YOU over the first bill and her suspicions of what it meant? Yes. It would have been nice if you had called her and asked how the property was and did she have any reason to believe that anything might be wrong, too. Guess what? Neither happened.
In the end, it is a structural repair beyond her power to order. You are wrong. You pay.
@John Clark you sure are pleasant. I am not wrong seeing that she signed the lease agreement stating that she would pay her bills on time. Her not paying on time resulted in postponed detection of the leak, which I have received counsel on. I am compromising to pay half. Thanks for your input though.
Tell her to call the water company. Most of them should have phoned or contacted her to say something was wrong when the consumption went up. They often do a discount if it happens once.
@Theresa Harris yea i tried. Our area provides very poor services
That sucks. One of my tenants had a leaky flapper value in the toilet, so the water was slowly running constantly. My water company tried to call her, but there was no answer, so they phoned me to let me know. We then got the toilet fixed (she never told me about it).
From my understanding, any thing from the curb box ( where the water co. Turns on and off) to the house is owners responsibility, unless its the meter itself. Ask the water co.
Is there public sewer? If so, most municipalities will at least waive the sewer fees for the overage amount as it didn't go down the sewer. ie, many water bills charge $$$$ for water and $$$$ for sewer. (often same for each). So I've been successful in getting them to waive the sewer portion. Often times the leaked out water will need to be paid for since it was "used" or wasted but the city did provide it.
@John Clark i also don’t believe you read through the thread completely. Might have helped in your response.
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Oh, I read more than enough. Your evasion of the fact that YOU are responsible for the infrastructure of the house speaks volumes. Even if she paid the bill, WHERE DO YOU STATE THAT SHE HAD ANY RESPONSIBILITY TO TELL YOU WHAT SHE PAID? So as another poster said, she could be "surprised" at her first bill, and therefore was perfectly REASONABLE when she got the second bill. As I said -- you didn't ask, now did you?
So let's play this out: What are the probabilities that IF she told of the first bill and her fears, and you would have responded "Let's wait until the second bill because (As has been posted, it could have been a "surprise."") and see what happens.
It's an infrastructure problem, therefore it is your problem. YOU pay her the excess over the average of her water bill for that time period.
I'm a lawyer of over 30 years experience. I hate whiners, too. You are trying to evade those which you know are your responsibilities.
Three Strikes. You are out. Her responsibility has nothing to do with you keeping the infrastructure in shape.
Let me put it this way: If there was a leak that caused $XXXXX of damage to the roof and your tenant "saw a possible stain on her ceiling"
would you say that she was responsible for the roof leak?
Folks, I hate whiners, be they tenants or landlords . You Kough, are a whiner.
@John Clark she also sought legal counsel from JAG (allegedly) and her exact response to me was “that is definitely fair.” I appreciate your passion though. Again, read through the entire thread before getting hot and heavy. I further explained some things that i left out initially. It’ll serve you better in the future. God Bless.
@Robert Kough I believe at least one other person mentioned it, but I would definitely reach out to your water provider. I work with numerous utility companies in my day job and most have a reimbursement policy around leaks. You usually just have to submit a receipt or invoice for repairs, and most, if not all, of the of the overage cost will be provide back as a billing credit. You might have to work with or through your tenant if they “own” the water account. They should at least comp you for any sewer expenses as that overage water never technically made it into the sewer. Good luck!
@Robert Kough no really it's not. A tenant has no idea what the bill should be. Each tenant uses showers, dishwashers, laundry specific to their use. How would she have a baseline to go off of? Stop being irresponsible, pay the bill, or you may end up in small claims court where you will lose.
Another question should be if the average bill is $50-60 then why wouldn’t the water company come out or notify someone of a leak. I think they should be accountable some as well.
@Karen Margrave ok so you are mistaken. Per bigger pockets lease it explicitly states they have 24 hrs to notify owner of leak upon them knowing. This did not happen. It also states that they are responsible for timely payment of utilities. This also did not happen. Both extremely important factors in this scenario. It is frustrating when people on her act like experts. I have talked to law offices and you are mistaken. I came on here for advice but have been met with alot of disgruntled people who are so certain they know the right answer.
@Gary Siver I completely agree. They are thieves out here. I paid 500 out of pocket for a corroded sharkbite that was connected to the meter. They wouldn’t work with me at all. Its resolved though. Tenant and I both agreed to pay half after we both received some counsel. Worked out.