Re: cracked sink - Landlord Forum thread

Re: cracked sink by Anonymous on July 18, 2012 @15:21

No matter what caused it the tenants did not report it. I would think if it was from an earthquake they would call and say gee your sink cracked from the earthquake. I would charge them the cost to repair it. If you replace it you cannot charge them the entire cost because of depreciation. I have a porcelain sink that is 40 yrs old with no cracks and I live in WA state and we have had a few earthquakes as well. I think it is silly to blame it on an earthquake if the rest of the house had no damage.

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Re: cracked sink by xxx (ca) on July 18, 2012 @15:49	[ Reply ]

KaChing KAAA Ching . Lets not be a reasonable LL and charge them depreciation value, lets have it repaired at a higher cost and gauge the 3 tenants who have lived there 2 years as much as we can, even though it would benefit the new tenant more to have a new sink, not a repaired sink. The Judges are not idiots. No wonder they rule so many times in favor of tenants when we have LL who act like this.

Re: cracked sink by Anonymous on July 19, 2012 @12:27	[ Reply ]

How about somebody comes over to your home and breaks something. Just ask them for the depreciated value of replacement. Yeah, that makes sense.

Re: cracked sink by Anonymous on July 20, 2012 @00:04	[ Reply ]

You can choose to either repair it or replace it. If you replace the entire item, then you can only fairly charge the depreciated value...basically what the cost of a 2 year used sink would be. This would be the same if a friend or a stranger came into your home and broke something and you sued them for it. The court would only award you the value of the item at the time of it was broken. Their goal is to make you whole not be in a better position than you were before. To make you whole, the used item would be replaced with the same item also used for the same x amount of years.The cost of the item would be less than a brand new, just out of the box item. Since that is not always possible, then a depreciated value is used. If you repair the item, then the cost of repair is rewarded. However, common sense would dictate that if cost to repair is greater than the cost to replace with a new one, most would just get the new item and forgo the repair.