Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded

Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded by NY-LL on June 1, 2012 @14:33

Where did you go to property management/landlord school?
There is no "industry standard" requirement or practice to replace any residential apparatus or appliances. There is no way to inspect a one year water heater tank or a 20 year water heater tank for leaks. Just as there is no way to inspect a faucet for leaks. It leaks when it leaks then all are aware of needed maintenance.

Ridiculous Landlord Liabilities:

To follow the reasoning that the landlord is at fault would make the landlord not liable for "inspecting for leaks" the day before the incident occurred. Yet, the tenant can still fail to notify the landlord on the day of the leak (ridiculous #1) until a week later when the landlord performs the next weekly inspection. (ridiculous #2)

Well, the lease agreement both parties signed must be irrelevant (just ignore the tenant occupant notification policy). (ridiculous #3)

And, remember to insert the "landlord must inspect the premises for all potential and unknown maintenance on a weekly basis." (ridiculous #4)

Whereas, "the tenant shall ignore all emergency electric, gas, and plumbing hazards to the detriment of the property." (ridiculous #5)

The landlord is required to replace all household apparatus and appliances prior to reaching their life expectancy (ridiculous #6), including refrigerators, range ovens, toilets, etc. within the 7-10 year period to avoid liability.

**Georgia Landlord** Please advise the reason tenants locked all basement doors to prevent access.

[ Reply ] [ Return to forum ]

Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded by Susan on June 1, 2012 @16:27	[ Reply ]

So lets say the landlords vehicle had bad brakes and was in an accident which injured someone. The vehicle had many miles on it and the brakes had never been serviced or check. Do you think the judge/jury would find the landlord negligent for failing to properly maintain the landlords vehicle or do you think it's someone else's responsibility, Someone who might had notice the brakes making a funny noise? Yes, there is an Industry Standard for water heaters; Gas water heater 10 years Electric water heater 11 years It has been found that most water heaters start leaking around this time. Manufactures of water heaters do list preventive/service requirements for their products along with trouble shooting guides, warranty limints, etc. The landlord should have known that a 15 year old water heater was at a high risk of leaking. You can replace all washers/o rings or areators every couple of years on a faucet as preventive maintenance just like you would replace the flapper valve in the toilet each year to cut down on water leakage. The landlord should have been more proactive with the water heater located in the basement by installing catch pans or an alarm system to alert someone of a leak. The landlord stated the basement area was carpeted and finish out, this can be used as a sleeping area. This house might be able to accomendate up to 9 occupants without violating any laws. Most appliances are offten replaced prior to their life expectancy because of update or styles. As to the reason the tenant locked the basement room doors, perhaps it's as simple as keeping grandma out of the rooms, really who knows.

Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded by OP of thread (GA) on June 1, 2012 @17:02	[ Reply ]

Thanks, NY-LL and others who gave advice based on experience. We plan to check on the property tomorrow, and we will definitely report back what we find about what's in the locked rooms. I have grown weary of Susan's mantra that we "ignored our water heater and other fixtures for 15 years" and totally neglected our property. This is not true and totally invented. Susan doesn't know us and has no idea what she is talking about. This home was our personal home for over 13 of those 15 years. We only rented it out 18 months ago. At the time we found out we needed to move (quickly) for my husband's job change, this house had a brand new roof (1 month old), new 16 SEER heat pump and furnace (6 months old), in ground sprinker system, new garage door, new front brick walk, new trees planted, nearly new fence, new dishwasher (1 year), nearly new fridge (2 years), etc. I think the hot water heater was the only major fixture we didn't replace within two years before we moved out. We planned to retire in this house and kept it up accordingly. I cried when we had to leave. Before renting it out to get through this horrendous real estate market, we cleaned it thoroughly and updated some items that were just old (faucets, etc.). The house was inspected by our landlord policy insurance company. Everything worked very well when we turned it over to the new tenants. We did not replace perfectly nice working appliances just for the heck of it, and we have never heard of any such "industry recommendations" to do so. , except maybe from people who sell such appliances and stand to profit from that kind of idiotic waste. Our tenants are very hard to reach and communicate with. They are foreign, don't speak English, and work at odd hours. They seem to greatly value their privacy. Fine with us. They paid on time every month for a year and a half, including this month. On the two occasions previously when they did call my husband to check on minor things shortly after they moved in, they expected him to come over there at 10 or 11 at night (never during normal working hours) because they work vampire hours. Just because they don't function on a normal schedule doesn't mean our family is available at that hour. Our long time neighbors on both sides are friends of the tenants. We've had numerous discussions with our friends about their new neighbors. Both families tell us they love the new tenants, great neighbors, etc. We had absolutely no sane reason to believe that anything like this would happen. I don't fault the tenants for the broken and leaking heater. It was 15 years old. We replaced it within 16 hours of getting the call. What I do blame them for is ruining a basement full of carpet, the baseboards, and the sheetrock by allowing the leak to go on for weeks or months! Clearly in the photos we have, mold and mildew had been growing for some time. How do you ignore a 10 foot diameter green mold stain in the middle of a room and 2 inches of black mold crawling up the baseboards? I don't know how fast mold grows, personally, but I'm pretty sure it didn't just pop out of thin air while they were at work that day (as we were told) It bothers me that the tenants lied when they called us Wednesday. They said "the basement is flooded and we don't know why". Bull! The remediators told us that the tenants told them it had been leaking for "quite awhile". Clearly the evidence of mold shows this has been going on for weeks or months. The failed water heater is not their fault. Ruining the rest of the basement by failing to tell us is. As to the inspections, my husband is working 80 hour weeks. I have two small children who were very emotional about leaving our old home. So, no, I have not been hiring child care and arranging four hour day trips just to see if the tenants are changing the air conditioning filters, fixing light bulbs, and generally doing things any adult sfh occupant ought to know how to do. And BTW, they agreed to do in their lease. They agreed in writing to let us know promptly of any problems so we could fix them. We never agreed to be their nannies or their building supervisor when the lease was signed. I would have charged far more for the rental had I agreed to provide such supervision. My five year old would know to come tell mom that the carpet was wet, why can't three grown adults manage to do this? I'll calm down now, but I am tremendously disappointed in these people. I do appreciate the constructive advice I have received from some posters. Thanks, K

Re: Urgent advice needed please--basement flooded by NY-LL on June 2, 2012 @06:50	[ Reply ]

To avoid any oversight, print out a copy of the LPA Property Condition Inspection Report in order to perform a thorough inspection of the entire premises. Due to the handling of the water heater tank leak, expect to find other property damage throughout the premises. Advise the tenants two months prior to lease expiration that there will be a rent increase to bring the property to �fair market value.� In the interim, list the property for rent on Craiglist with an availability date to correspond with the lease expiration. In the likelihood that a new tenant prospect is found, be sure to use the LPA Rental Agreement (intend for house rental not apartments) and other essential LPA documents, such as the LPA Appliance Agreement with repair clause. Use the same LPA Rental Agreement and essential LPA documents if you decide to keep the current tenants (to provide a better understanding of tenant responsibilities).