Tenants breaking the lease agreement terms

Tenants breaking the lease agreement terms

SFR Investor · Member since 2011 · 198 posts · 61 votes

So I get a call from one of my renters saying the plumbing is stopped up and it's shooting out the roof vent. Now this is an old country home on a septic system that had a garbage disposal that I removed the cord from so it could not be used.

I had told the tenant several times as I always do at this home not to try and use the disposal or it will clog the pipes. I knew as soon as she said it came out the vent that only the disposal would do that so I looked under the sink and there was a new cord wrapped up high and not plugged in.

Now I knew there was no cord as I had removed it several years ago, I plugged it in and flipped the switch and it ran! Well I was a little upset at that point and told her I was calling the plumber and the bill was on her, it cost 139 dollars to have it snaked.

Right after that I was looking around and noticed that she had climbed on my roof and mounted a TV antenna on a broomstick with duct tape to my heater exhaust pipe! Now I look around back and I find she has unhooked the connections to the Dish and lost the parts. She cut the cable line coming from the service pole on the house, there was cable strung from the gutter going in the back door then over the back deck to the crawl space access! 

They also did not pay for the garbage and let leaves pile up in front of the home and, and they dumped all of their grass clippings over the back fence onto my other property in the back!

Let me explain I tell these people as we go through the rental agreement the rules like they are not allowed to do any improvements on the home, they are not allowed on the roof, attic or in the crawl space. I have them initial next to all the important items so they can't say they were not informed.

What would you do with these tenants?

0Reply
26 views

Most Popular Reply

Investor · Southeast, MI · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
13y
Originally posted by Jeffrey C.:
So I get a call from one of my renters saying the plumbing is stopped up and it's shooting out the roof vent.

I'm not sure how this would even be possible. If your plumbing is clogged somewhere along the line, it would not come out of the vent stack. It would back up in the lowest place. Either your sink or somewhere lower like a bathtub.

Did you see this occur or is that what the tenant claims?

See this reply in the discussion

5 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Investor · Southeast, MI · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    13y
    Originally posted by Jeffrey C.:
    So I get a call from one of my renters saying the plumbing is stopped up and it's shooting out the roof vent.

    I'm not sure how this would even be possible. If your plumbing is clogged somewhere along the line, it would not come out of the vent stack. It would back up in the lowest place. Either your sink or somewhere lower like a bathtub.

    Did you see this occur or is that what the tenant claims?

  • Real Estate Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2013 · 27 posts · 1 vote
    13y

    When the lease ends, get them out. Make the appropriate repairs from their damage deposit. Give them written notice that you are not going to release to them. Keep a close eye on them and if they are doing intentional damage to the property you can get them in to court and get them out before the end of the lease. Photo document everything.

  • Investor · Clairemont, CA · Member since 2011 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    13y

    Give her whatever your required notice is to fix the issues, or you will be calling someone out to do it and charging her for it. If she fixes it great have a talk and say you expect to not have issues again, if she doesn't use that as your reason to get her out of the unit now rather than later.

  • Rental Property Investor · Mercer Island, WA · Member since 2008 · 22k+ posts · 14k+ votes
    13y

    If you don't want them using the disposal, remove it. Just unplugging it is not going to keep them from using it. If its there, they will actually HAVE to use it or else it will clog up and block the drain.

    No way will using a disposal cause anything to shoot out the vent if the rest of the drain system is OK. The drain lines are blocked somewhere. A disposal may not be a great idea on septic, but the disposal is not the source of these problems.

    Sounds like she didn't want to pay for dish so switched to an antenna. That doesn't seem unreasonable, but the setup seems very unreasonable. I'd inform her that's unacceptable and that you will hook up the antenna correctly, at her expense.

    I have one rental where you have to pay for trash. That's common here, unless you're in the city of Denver. I gave up on tenants dealing with this. I pay for the trash (and water) and have them give me $100 per month, in addition to the agreed-upon rental. That way I'm sure they have trash service. This has worked MUCH smoother than relying on the tenant to get and pay for trash service.

    I prefer month to month lease for just this sort of tenant. If they won't be cooperative and compliant, they get terminated.

  • SFR Investor · Member since 2011 · 198 posts · 61 votes
    13y

    Rob K
    She stuffed plastic sacks into the washing machine tube and it's a small simple house so the disposal will pump the water to the first open unblocked outlet, that being the roof vent in this case and there was food particles on the roof.

    Jon Holdman
    I know my wife already told me a long time ago to remove the disposal and I was just too tired from renovating the place myself at the time to make myself do it.

    I have all the conversion parts and will remove the disposal early next week although I do not think she will do that again, that was a lot of money for a poor family.

    I am leaning towards a written warning, they have paid on the day rent is due the first three months they have been there and she takes good care of the inside cleaning. Also I do inspect my homes quarterly so I usually catch things before they get this far but this is the first time I have had problems so soon.

    I will be renovating the place in the back over the next few months as I get time so I will be able to keep a close eye on them. That place needs a new foundation so I will be busy repairing that for a while.

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.