water pouring in :( - Landlord Forum thread

water pouring in :( by maryann on November 14, 2009 @23:35

Water is pouring in my second floor unit. We had a horrible day of rain. This unit has had some past water issues which we fixed but today was miserable for the tenant and us. We're headed out tomorrow to try again to fix and get a contractor out. Part of the wall was rotted. The tenant is now upset there may be mold and said her son is asthmatic. So, now I'm pretty much freaking. As far as I know there is no mold, yes a rotted wall but it will be replaced. The whole unit is new and was renovated in the spring. We bought and rehabbed it.

Other than isolating the water leaks and fixing the wall, what is my responsibilty here? She said her mattress got soaked!? Although we haven't seen it.

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Re: water pouring in :( by Anonymous on November 15, 2009 @00:35	[ Reply ]
Their renters insurance will cover any damages to their property as your insurance would only cover your damages. Good thing you requireed them to have renters insurance!

Re: water pouring in :( by OK-LL on November 15, 2009 @11:30

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For everyone's peace of mind, you can pick up a simple mold test test at Home Depost for under $20. You place the petrie dish in the affected room for 24 hours, seal the dish and sent it to a lab, per instructions on the kit. They will send you back the written lab results via US Mail or email identifying any mold growing in the environment the dish was in and letting you know the toxicity or non-tox of the particular types found -- keep in mind most houses have a variety of molds which 99% of the population can tolerate (bath, windows, cheese, air ducts). It is a very rare strain that actually has a deleterious effect on one's health. If your tenant is asthmatic, they may want to use special HEPA (sp?) HAC filters to help with that (at their expense).

I used this test last year and it helped me to avoid a big hairy deal with window mold in a bathroom. It was common household stuff and told the tenant to use bleach. I always recaulk the tubs between tenants, just to get rid of any staining -- and I charge that to the departing tenant, since their cleaning habits allowed it to get stained!

Re: water pouring in :(

Re: water pouring in :( by Kelly (PA) on November 16, 2009 @07:50

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Been there. And it's miserable. As long as you are diligently fixing the problem you are covered legally. The LPA lease requires the tenant to have renters' insurance and includes a waiver of your responsibility if they fail to get it (not that you'd be responsible anyway.)

However... is this a good tenant you want to keep? If so it might be a nice gesture to get her a $50 or $100 Wal-Mart gift card (amount depends on how good a tenant of course!) However, if this is a bad tenant who you think is going to use this as an excuse not to pay rent next month, forget it. You can do nice things for those people all day long to no effect. In fact, this may be a good time to "let" a bad tenant out of the lease, out of the kindness of your heart, of course.

Re: water pouring in :(