About a week ago my tenant called telling me her sink was getting clogged after washing dishes. The water wasnt going down and she was getting dirty water backed up. Ended up calling a plumber to unclog the sink he told me it was that the tenant has been trowing away napkins, food etc. Down the sink. The plumber ended up unclogging everything and changing a couple parts and now everything is ok.
My question is do i have to take care of that bill or would she have to pay for it since it was her fault for clogging the sink.
I took a look at the contract and all it says for repairs is that the tenant covers the first $100 dollars of maintenance repairs. I bought the property with the tenant already so i have to honer the current contract.
@Diego La Rotta as the contract says, tenant pays for the first $100 of repairs. From my reading, this is put into contracts as a way to get tenants to not do damage or treat the place poorly as they will be on the hook right away for more money. I believe I have similar wording on my contract for an inherited tenant. From what you describe above it sounds like the tenant is just being lazy, a sink is not a garbage to throw stuff away in. I would send them the bill. Explain, if needed, that what happened is not general wear and tear or the sink being faulty. If you needed you can point out on the agreement where it states they are responsible for the first $100. I would imagine you are going to get push-back from the tenant but that's the way it is sometimes. That's just my two cents.
@Diego La Rotta, beyond this incident is this a good tenant? With an outlier situation like this if it is a good tenant, I typically eat it the first time and talk to them letting them know that if this is a repeat issue she will be billed back for the whole repair (depending on LL-tenant laws in your area), this is far beyond standard wear and tear and would typically fall as a tenant's responsibility beyond even the $100 language in the lease.
Our lease clearly states that any repair person that comes will assess is the repair is due to tenant negligent use, etc. We give them a list, in a handbook, of stuff they cannot put down disposal or down toilet and if these things are found, the repair will be their responsibility. If they pay the first $100, the could cover a good chunk of it.
If it wasn't an extreme bill, I would probably cover it and tell tenant that she now has clear pipes, and if her actions clog them again she will be responsible for the bill.