One of the most common problems to occur to a tenant are plumbing issues. Drains and toilets get clogged, water heaters go out, and leakage problems can come from adjacent units. When there are many people living in close proximity, even if the pipes in the building are equipped to handle all those people, problems still arise.
Your landlord can charge you for all repairs that are caused by something you did in the apartment.
But right now, you have a problem with your plumbing in your apartment and have called your landlord to come over and deal with it, but he is insisting that it is YOUR problem to fix. Is it? Or should they be responsible for making the water flow again in your apartment?
I am going to go over what the landlord’s responsibility is regarding fixing the plumbing in your apartment, and what things could end up being your cost.
Is Plumbing The Landlord’s Responsibility?
Making sure the plumbing and water is correctly working in your apartment is the responsibility of the landlord when you move in.
Once you move in, things change a bit. You are now the resident of the apartment and are the one using the equipment. While plumbing issues are usually bigger in scope than light bulbs, the same concept applies. Your landlord should make sure that all the lightbulbs are working before you move in. But, once you move in and one goes out, you are responsible for replacing the bulb because you are using it.
The landlord is responsible for making sure that the pipes and water are working when a tenant moves in, but also if there is a problem that makes the apartment not habitable.
Say, for instance, that a pipe broke, or there was a leak somewhere and water is getting into your apartment. Your landlord is responsible for fixing the broken pipe or whatever the problem may have been because it was structural in nature and it impacted the inhabitability of the apartment.
Now, if it is something like a toilet won’t flush, then the responsibility can be on either party.
Usually, the maintenance guy or a plumber is called over to assess what the problem is and then they proceed to fix it. If it is relatively simple, and your apartment complex has a maintenance guy that is on-site, the complex might not charge you anything at all for getting your toilet running again.
HOWEVER, if a plumber has to be called out, especially if it is after-hours, then there is going to be a hefty bill coming at the end of service. Who pays for this?
Most times, the determination falls on the plumber to determine where the fault lay in the problem. If it ends up being just old piping or something else that was going to have to be replaced at some point anyway, the landlord will, in almost every case, pay without hassle.
If though, the problem was caused by something that was put DOWN the drain, whether that be on purpose or accidental, then the responsibility lies with the person who put the inappropriate material down the drain.
Can A Landlord Charge You For Clogged Drain?
If you caused the drain to be clogged, your landlord is within their rights to charge you for the cost of unclogging the drain.
Again, this is completely situational. If your complex has a maintenance guy who is on staff and willing to come over, AND this is not a repetitive problem for your unit, more than likely they are going to fix it for free.
If however, a full-service plumber has to be called out, incurring hundreds of dollars of cost to the landlord, more than likely they are going to make you pay for the cost of repair. Remember, you are living on their property, anything that is done to cause harm to the property must be fixed by the person living there, and that is true whether or not you meant to clog the drain or not.
A non-working drain means there is a clog in it somewhere unless the water has been shut off. This means that the problem is most likely human error of some kind. Do your best to unclog it yourself. There are some super effective products you can simply go to the store to get that works wonders on drains and pipes.
Just make sure you check with your landlord or maintenance guy before putting something down the drain that may cause more harm than help.
How Long Does A Landlord Have To Fix Plumbing?
Your landlord must fix any plumbing issue that is inherent to the livability of the apartment in a “reasonable” amount of time.
What does “reasonable” mean?
Reasonable is used here as in an “appropriate” time frame. There is no real time limit on this because your landlord may be at the mercy of the schedules of the plumbers in town. If your landlord isn’t a plumber, and the plumbers are all booked, then fixing it may become a thing of just waiting until a licensed professional can come and rectify the problem.
What this wording does is allow for the uncertainty in your landlord being able to schedule something immediately. Sometimes immediate can’t happen right away, but more of a show that a fix IS on the way in a reasonable time frame.
The word “reasonable” also is used for the benefit of the tenant in that the landlord can’t just wait around until whenever to get someone over there to fix the problem. I don’t know of any landlords that do this, but if a landlord just decided for whatever reason to just delay the fix, then you would have a legitimate gripe to have with them.
For a rule of thumb, if you would be calling a plumber yourself to fix the issue, is your landlord’s plumber coming in about the same time frame as a regular plumber could be called and come over? If so, then that is reasonable.
It is also your landlord’s prerogative to call the preferred providers they choose to do business with, and if there is a bit of a delay because of this issue, as long as it isn’t something to deal with the direct habitability of the apartment, then a BIT of a delay to use their preferred plumber is also “reasonable”. They just can’t wait around for weeks to call.
What If Your Landlord Won’t Fix Your Plumbing?
If your landlord refuses to fix your plumbing, you need first determine who is at fault for the cause of the issue, and then determine the reasons behind why your landlord won’t pay for the fix.
The only experiences I have had with this type of situation is where a landlord owns single family houses and a particular unit is having CONSTANT plumbing issues. A full-priced plumber is being called regularly to “unclog” something. At some point, the landlord has had enough of the issue and is putting the accountability on the tenant. This is well within the landlord’s rights to do.
Now, if the plumbing problem is caused by something OTHER than human error on the part of the tenant, then the landlord is OBLIGATED to fix the issue because it goes to the habitability of the unit as a whole.
Landlords are typically more than willing to fix these types of problems without complaint because it takes away a problem that could have severe consequences on the structural integrity of the unit, and also makes a capital improvement to the structure. On top of that, they have happy tenants who are satisfied to exchange payment for lodging.
The first and last step of this problem should be talking to your landlord. Figure out why they won’t jump on your plumbing problem and fix it. If the problem is YOUR fault, then you are going to have to suck it up and pay for it. Finally, if your landlord is that much of a jerk, then you don’t want to be living in one of their units, to begin with, use the plumbing issue as a way to break out of your lease.
In short, your landlord can charge you for plumbing issues that are a direct cause of something you as the tenant did, whether you meant to do it or not. If the problem is something structural, leading to a living environment that is not suitable for habitation, then your landlord is responsible for the cost of the repair.
