The maintenance guy for your building finally made it over to your unit to fix your clogged sink. He wraps up, then says the manager will send you a bill for the work. WHAT?!? Can they do that?!
If the tenant was responsible for the issue that maintenance must fix, the landlord has the right to charge you for it.
This issue of plumbing repairs, who has to fix them, and who is going to pay for it ranges all over the map. There are apartment complexes that just take care of everything no matter what happens or who caused it, and there are landlords that charge their tenant for every maintenance call they have. Neither way is right or wrong necessarily, it just depends on the policy of the apartment complex you choose.
Can My Landlord Charge Me For Plumbing Repairs?
Long story short: Yes, your landlord can charge you for repairs.
But let’s looks at the TYPES of repairs they can charge you for, because there are some things that are their responsibility to fix.
If the problem is structural, like a leaky pipe or some other plumbing issue that is inherent to the livability of the apartment, then it is the landlord’s responsibility to fix it. This means anything that you couldn’t directly influence or have caused to happen. Pipes corrode and get old, and sometimes things just break. That’s why the world has plumbers.
Your landlord is responsible for maintaining the “Implied Warranty Of Habitability” for your apartment. This means that anything that would prevent your apartment from being livable, they are responsible to fix and make right in a reasonable amount of time.
Now, you may think that your drippy kitchen sink is something you can’t live with anymore, but that wouldn’t be considered something that would violate the “Implied Warranty Of Habitability”.
It would have to be something like there is no running water in your house, or the toilet broke so bad that it is flooding your neighbors below you or causing water damage. Something that is inherent to the structure of the apartment, and something that would prevent the apartment from being livable.
Any other issue that you have that is a result of you using the plumbing, and you COULD be on the hook for it.
I say COULD because it really depends on your landlord here. I, personally in my apartment complex send my maintenance guy to fix virtually every leaky faucet and clogged sink that comes to our attention.
Why? For two reasons. First, it is a nice service we can do for our tenants. Calling a plumber to come out for a house call is really expensive, and happy tenants both stay longer and treat your property better. Secondly, I don’t want to have whatever issue they are having to turn into a MAJOR issue.
Better to send my maintenance guy who I am already paying to keep the place running, to fix whatever little thing they have to prevent a bigger thing from happening in the future.
Where I draw the line is when there are repeat offenders for the SAME THING over and over and over again. If my maintenance guy says that he just unclogged the sink of a tenant for the third time this week and they continue to put things down the sink that are going to clog it… I am going to send them a bill. Then I usually give that money straight to my maintenance guy just for his efforts.
The bill is never more than $75 bucks or so, but it does a couple of things. It lets them know that the maintenance guy has other things to do than be their mom and puts a bit of impetus on the tenant to not put that crap down the kitchen sink again or they may be looking at another $75 bill.
Now, not all apartment complexes are run like this. Many have relatively strict guidelines on what is covered by maintenance and what isn’t covered. And anything that isn’t covered is going to come back to you in the form of a bill.
Your lease should provide you with the information on maintenance and how to perform a maintenance request with your landlord or manager. Usually, it’s not that big of a deal, and especially if it is a first-time issue, a good landlord will just take care of it.
Just make sure that you aren’t chronically doing something that is going to cost the landlord money, or you will absolutely wind up getting a bill.
Who Is Responsible For Blocked Drains: Tenants Or Landlords?
Who is responsible for a blocked drain is going to come down to a couple of different factors: What the conditions of the pipes are, and who was responsible for the blockage.
When pipes get old, they can get a buildup of residue inside them, causing the pipe to essentially shrink in diameter on the inside. This can make clogs more common than in new pipes and drains.
When your maintenance guy or plumber comes over to rectify the blocked drain, they are going to be able to tell when they snake it, whether or not their snake is going through organic material or mineral deposit buildup and corrosion.
If the clog happened because the pipes are old and not maintained or just need to be replaced, your landlord is responsible. If the plumber cleans out a bunch of crap you stuffed down the drain which caused it to clog, you are going to be on the hook.
I have talked several times on the “Implied Warranty of Habitability” in different articles, most of which deal with repairs and the condition of your apartment. Your landlord has the legal responsibility to keep your apartment in a “habitable condition”. This means that there are some minimum standards that they have to provide a tenant to no matter what.
If these conditions are not met, and it makes the apartment uninhabitable, then they must fix the problem.
Again though, these MUST be problems that actually make the apartment uninhabitable. A toilet that makes noise may seem like the most annoying thing in the world, and your maintenance guy will eventually get around to it, but it isn’t a “habitability issue”.
Are Tenants Responsible For Burst Pipes?
This is going to come down to what condition the pipes were in before the pipe burst, and what caused the pipe to burst.
Your maintenance guy, or the plumber, is going to be able to tell where the problem originated. If you were using the pipes just in normal usage and something burst due to neglect or decay, then the landlord is going to cover fixing that problem.
If you tried to flush a turkey down your toilet…….well, more than likely you are going to have to pick up the cost on that, just like if you had your own house.
Leasing an apartment doesn’t mean you are free from all responsibility, it means that the landlord takes care of all those things that are required to make the apartment habitable.
How Long Does A Landlord Have To Fix A Plumbing Problem?
Most landlords are under a couple of different obligations to make sure the plumbing works in your apartment. First, in the lease and secondly in the “implied warranty of habitability”. These conditions are in place to protect the habitability of the tenant.
The timeframe on them fixing the issue is almost ALWAYS going to depend on the severity of an issue. Is the bathtub overflowing and leaking into the apartment downstairs? They are going to come running. If it is a leaky kitchen faucet you just can’t quite get to stop, he will come when he has a couple of free minutes someday.
If it is major, your landlord is going to handle it quickly, not just for the sake of your comfort, although that is part of it, but for the sake of their own property. That is why it is rare that a tenant has to worry for too long about when the landlord is going to fix a major plumbing issue because usually, it is pretty quick.
But if not, you have those two clauses to fall back on or bring up to them.
The good thing is that most times, it never even comes to having to invoke these two things as a way to get your landlord to fix something serious. They are going to WILLINGLY fix a problem, especially a major structural problem, because it is a direct threat to their own property.
If they don’t fix something that is serious, it can turn into something major. This is EXACTLY why I offer to fix, even though it can be a headache, virtually all of my tenants’ plumbing problems. I don’t want a drip turning into a deluge.
It is also a good chance for the maintenance guy to see what the state of the plumbing is in for the whole apartment. Many times, he has been able to diagnose things that would have quickly turned into a problem had he not come in there to fix the small leak or drip.
So, this can be a good opportunity for your landlord to make sure their property is functioning as it should, which is something that both you and they want.
If the problem you are calling your maintenance guy for is a direct result of something you did, then your landlord has the right to charge you for it. If the problem is something structural and infringes upon the “Implied Warranty Of Habitability”, then that is something your landlord is responsible to pay for and fix.
