Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded

Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded by NY-LL on June 1, 2012 @08:22

This is a whole house rental. The tenant is responsible to notify the landlord of any maintenance or repair issues related to the entire premises. The landlord is required to inspect the premises for regular maintenance to prevent known issues or assess normal wear and tear. (A seasonal landlord inspection would be more than sufficient.)

The water tank heater damage was known to the tenant (indicated by the positioning of the mattress), therefore, the tenant was negligent in not immediately notify the landlord of the water condition. The water tank heater leak caused long-term damages which were known to the tenant (evident by the mold and mildew buildup), therefore, the tenant was negligent in not cleaning the condition prior to notifying the landlord.

The tenant, instead, continued to use the premises with the damaged water tank heater in violation of lease agreement, without regard to the water tank heater damage and the water leak condition pooling in and under the carpet for at least several days, allowing further unnecessary damage to take effect. While the landlord could have or may have had a pan installed underneath the hot water tank to subside the leak, an overflow from the unattended pan drainage would have had the same damaging effect without attention to the matter, which requires immediate notification to the landlord.

While the water tank heater has an anticipated life span expectancy, it does the presume the unwarranted replacement of the product at a set date or specific year. All products have an anticipated life expectancy, including furnace heaters, refrigerators, range stove ovens, toilets, etc. (which function well beyond the life expectancy when well maintained), and do not normally require replacement of the product until they are no longer functional.

The posters who believe the tenant was not negligent (leaving the landlord at fault) are either misinformed tenants, uninformed landlords, or not familiar with a standard lease agreement and the responsibility of tenants to maintain the premises and notify the landlord of maintenance issues.

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Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded by Susan on June 1, 2012 @09:31	[ Reply ]

A lease can not transfer the landlords responsibility to maintain a rental, especially a 15 year old water heater thats never been serviced or maintained. A lawyer would easily show that the water heater was not propertly maintained, it was past the manufactures recomended replace date, it had no saftey devices to alert someone of a leak. The attorney could point out that this could have happened while the tenants where absent from the rental on vacation or trip. That if the landlord had followed the manufactors recomendation on proper replacement and serving, that the damage would not have occured. That the failure of the landlord to inspect and replace a 15 year old water heater that was way past the recomended replacement date was the cause of the damage and could have been prevented. The landlord can blame the tenant all he/she wishes, but an ounce of prevention would been worth a pound of cure.

Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded by NY-LL on June 1, 2012 @12:30	[ Reply ]

All standard lease agreements require the tenant to notify landlord of any emergency maintenance or repair in order to remedy the hazard in a timely manner. The failure of the tenant to notify the landlord of the water heater tank leak is negligence on the part of the tenant. * The tenant is not being blamed for the water heater tank leaking. * The tenant is being faulted for not notifying the landlord of the water heater tank leak. The unattended water leak caused additional, unnecessary damages in the form of mold and mildew. For that the tenant is negligent. While a court may or may not hold the tenant accountable, as a property their lease would NOT be renewed because these tenants are irresponsible and have limited regard for the property.

Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded by Susan on June 1, 2012 @13:36	[ Reply ]

The same could be said of the landlord, failure to inspect a 15 year old water heater for protential leaks. The failure of the landlord resulted in additional damages because the landlord failed to follow standard industry pactices in replacing a 15 year old water heater in a timely manner. If the landlord did their part, then there might not be any damage now. I guess you can say the landlord was negligent in not replacing a protentialy hazard water heater due to it age.

Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded