Hands On Real Estate Investing

We have a family of 5 renting a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom townhome. The lease states that the tenant is responsible for all utilities. The water bill is usually about $200 per month. However, the most recent water bill is over $600 bucks!

Should Landlord Help Tenant Pay Excessive Water Bill? We have a family of 5 renting a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom townhome. The #water bill is usually about $200 per month but the most recent bill is 3 times the normal bill! The #lease states that all #utilities are the responsibility of the #tenant. After investigating we discovered that the upstairs toilet has been running but she didn’t let us know. Should we help pay the bill? #landlord #landlords #landlordlife #tenants #tenantproblems #propertymanagement #propertymanager #propertymanagers #rentals #rental #rentalproperty #rentalproperties #realestate #realestateinvestor #realestateinvestors #realestatelife #realestateinvestment #realestateinvestments #realestateadvice #realestatetips #plumber #plumbers #plumberlife #plumberlifestyle

A post shared by handsonrealestateinvesting (@handsonrealestateinvesting) on Dec 5, 2017 at 8:39am PST

We contacted the tenant to find out what was going on … The mother of 4 mentioned that the toilet has been running for awhile after flushing. BINGO! We went to the rental to take a look, and sure enough, the TBD was not functioning properly. We replaced the TBD the same day!

Now, what do the do about this $600 water bill??? It really wasn’t the tenant’s fault that the toilet was running. We wish she had let us know. As the landlord, repairs are our responsibility. We agreed to split the bill in half. Lesson learned? We need to be more proactive about asking the tenant if there are problems with the toilets! We have a Move-In Checklist that should include a check for toilets.

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