Charging for tenant damages
Hi everyone,
I'm just curious if you have had a situation that you had to charge the tenant for damages.
A little background: tenant put in a maintenance request for slow draining bath tub (over a couple of weeks). I spoke with my maintenance guy who sent me a plumbing product that she could try before he came out. She messaged back stating that she saw a mouse attempting to come up the drain which she thinks was causing the clog and preferred to have the maintenance team come out than try anything herself.
When he came out he was unable to snake the pipe so we scheduled an appointment for him to return, however, due to placement of the pipes he has to cut a hole in the lower unit to access the pipes.
In his own words he believes it's an instance of hair, oil, and/or grease accumulation over time rather than a rodent issue. I made the tenant aware of this but let her know that I'm waiting for his determination on what caused the back up before any decisions are made. In a quick Google search I found that usually rodents can only enter pipes through cracks or holes in them so I'm waiting to see what he finds if what she said about the mouse is true.
In the case that it is an accumulation of hair and other buildup, have you ever had a tenant cost hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of damage and how did you handle the situation?
Most Popular Reply
#3 Managing Your Property Contributor
- Real Estate Agent
- Memphis
I’ve dealt with tenant-caused repairs, but with a larger bill I’d want the cause to be pretty clear before charging it back. In your case I’d let the plumber finish the diagnosis first and document what they find. If they can clearly tie the blockage and resulting work to tenant misuse, I’d charge accordingly and keep the plumber’s notes, photos, and invoice with it. If the cause is normal buildup, an existing plumbing issue, or still unclear, I wouldn’t try to make the tenant responsible just because the repair ended up being expensive.