Should I pay for this or should my landlord?

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, so this is the situation: my toilet got clogged the other day. Nothing unusual happened to it that day, and I always leave the lid closed, so nothing could have fallen into it. I live alone and don’t get tons of company, so no one was secretly flushing tampons or large balls of paper towels or anything.

I tried to get it unclogged with 3 bottles o’ Drano and a plunger. Succeeded in getting it somewhat unclogged, then used it an hour later, and it got clogged again. I had to get my landlord to call Roto Rooter. Of course, I was having a birthday party that night, my first in this house and in 5 years, but my guests had to urinate outside. Lovely.

My landlord says the plumber broke up the clog with a snake in like, a minute, so it was all my fault and I should pay for it. Honestly, I did nothing out of the ordinary to the damn toilet. I want to know if there’s any way it could have been clogged by something other than my normal use.

Some factors: I have only lived here for 5 months; the prior tenants lived here for 4 years and had a baby/toddler here. I live on the second floor. This house uses a septic tank. I have really hard water here; to indicate how bad it is, I washed the tub until it was sparkling white, and in one day, it was all brown again. I only ever flush toilet paper and the usual other stuff, never cat litter, tampons, paper towels, or anything else crazy like that. Never had the slightest problem with the toilet before this.

Is it valid for my landlord to try to make me pay for this? Could the clog be due to something other than my use of it? If it could only be my fault, and I’m just totally wrong about this being his responsibility, I might to pony up. This clog was unavoidable and I couldn’t fix it myself given the tools I currently have, so whose responsibility is it, ultimately? Is it a good idea to get some toilet snakes and learn how to deal with this myself, in case it ever happens again, or is this the sort of thing best left to the professionals?

I am just so frustrated with this house (in 5 months, the power’s been off twice b/c he forgot to pay the bill, I’ve had no hot water for 3 days b/c the basement flooded and the pilot went out, and we’ve blown fuses in a basement I didn’t have the key to until afterwards, and he bitched me out for planting a small, neat garden next to the house, even though when I moved in the bamboo growing around the house was literally 6 feet tall). Grrr. :mad: I don’t want to pay for this unless I am really in the wrong, as he has not compensated me monetarily for all the inconveniences I suffered that were his fault. This place is rickety and falling apart; he doesn’t take care of it at all. The two other apartments are unrented in this builing precisely because he never fixes anything.

OK, I better stop before this turns into a Pit thread.

2

It is not your responsibility to pay for a clogged toilet. He is the landlord, it’s his problem.

Secondly (speaking from experience here) improperly installed septic tanks can clog a toilet in a heart beat. I recall one incident where raw sewage was actually spraying out of the shower drain - again, not your fault.

Your landlord sounds like a dick-weed, if you ask me. Personally, if I had my power cut off because he was too incompetent to pay the bill, I’d be looking for new accomodation. However, that’s not always easy, so assuming you have to stay, you are absolutely not required to pay for general maitenence of his property - that’s one of the advantages of renting.

3

Sheesh, what fun…

What does your lease have to say about this? Seriously, this is why we have contracts in the first place, to avoid arguments over clogged toilets. If it’s a standard lease then it probably states who is responsible, and if it doesn’t (and even if it does) your state and/or local laws hold the high card in assigning responsibility.

Your landlord might be pissed about the money, but I really don’t see what difference it makes whether it took the plumber a minute or an hour to clean the clog. You called for help and the landlord took action. He chose to call a plumber, but he could have just as easily tried to plunge or snake the clog himself, even if you did specifically ask for him to call a plumber.

4

Did Roto Rooter say how far they snaked, or what they found? I don’t want to be the jerk here, but if they only put 18 inches of snake into the toilet and found a wad of toilet paper it’s more then likely (but not necessarily*) something you put down there. OTOH if they put 45’ of snake into the toilet and shreadded a bunch of tree roots, then it’s not your fault.

*I say not necessarily becuase even if it was just a wad of toilet paper, if it was caught up on a bad plumbing job, tree roots etc… it wouldn’t be your fault. ESPECIALLY if it’s something that needs to be fixed or it’s going to keep happening.

5

Roto Rooter, according to my landlord, said the clog was “in the toilet,” ie, within the pipe part under the toilet. He also claims that, because I’m on the second floor, the clog would have to be very close to the toilet, otherwise gravity would have pulled it down. That’s why it couldn’t be tree roots either.

I can’t imagine how toilet paper could clog a toilet that badly from one usage. Honestly, the toilet only had normal use the day it clogged. I will have to dig out my lease to see if it specifically mentions stuff I’d have to pay for. I think there’s a clause in there about him not having to pay for “incidental damages” caused by me, which he’s claiming this is. I’m trying to prove that it might have been me, or it might not, but either way, it’s his job to fix what breaks through normal use.

6

IANAL, nor do I claim any familiarity with the laws of your locale. As posted by others, read your lease. Obtain a copy of what we call the Landlord-Tenant Act around here. It spells out what is legal and what isn’t legal in rental agreements.

That said, after years of absentee landlord property maintenance, a number of folks have placed clauses in leases to charge the first $50 of a repair bill to the tenant for ordinary occurrences-essentially the same stuff you’d pay for if you were a homeowner. It cuts down on overall maintenance charges, as folks would rather wait until a small list of items exists before calling.

7

“Incidental damages” is a pretty broad brush and amounts to no more than exculpatory language in the contract that can easily be argued. You can’t prove it was the plumbing; he can’t prove you flushed an overcoat down the toilet. Seems to me to be a clear case of “he said, she said”. He called the plumber, so he is liable for the costs. Getting the money from you is a separate issue and I doubt he’s willing to take you to court to get it. Blow him off. If he sends the plumber to you for payment, politely point out that you have no contract with him, verbal or otherwise, to perform the work and that it’s the landlord’s responsibility to pay. This all assumes that you can find another place to live if he tries to toss you out, but most states have decent tenant protection laws.

8

So can cheap toilets. I’ve been renting my townhouse for 1.5 years, there are 4 toilets in the place, and I’ve had to ask the property manger to send plumbers out to fix 3 of them at least twice each (for some reason the one in the basement has always been just fine). They can get seriously clogged very easily. The plumber who came the last couple of times said that the toilets that came with the house are crap, he doesn’t know why the builder used them (prolly because they were cheap), and he’s had to replace a lot of them in my neighborhood. He even told me that the toilet on the main floor is on its last legs – a fact I was sure to relate to the property manager in writing. They haven’t charged me for any plumbing so far, but I’m not trying to get charged for a new toilet in another year or so!

9

You shouldn’t have to pay for the plumber. You used both a plunger and Drano before calling the landlord – you did more than most tenants would. A clogged toilet is his responsibility. The fact that he chose to call a plumber rather than fixing it himself is his own tough luck. If he didn’t want to pay a plumber to fix things that turn out to be relatively minor, he should haul his lazy ass over to your place before calling a plumber.

Don’t let him bully you into paying for routine maintenance. As alice_in_wonderland said, that’s the primary benefit of renting – you get no equity for your rent money, but you don’t have to fix things when they break.

10

I am not saying you guys are wrong, but as a landlord, I would hold your judgement on the landlord because you may not know the whole story. Landlords have to deal a lot with stuff like that. Being that you were there for 5 months and the toilet did not clog in that time, I would be inclined to say you tried to flush too much down it. Things usually get stuck in the built-in trap of the toilet. Since it was clearly stuck there, this also indicates that it was not a plumbing issue. A cheap toilet, maybe.

I would compromise and ask your landlord to pay half. I would also go to a hardware store and buy a plumbers snake for $10. You will likely need it in the future, and it saves time and money, even if you only use it once.

11

beltbuckle, had the place been well maintained, I would agree with you.

However, a badly installed or poorly maintained septic tank will make toilets back up and clog for what appears to be no reason. Again, speaking from experience here - I’ll tell you the story sometime when neither of us is eating - it’s kinda funny.

Anyhow - if this landlord isn’t maintaining the bulk of his property, I can’t imagine he’s taking proper care of his septic tank.

Secondly, why didn’t he attempt to fix it himself? Basic things like a plumbers snake are par for the course for landlords, no?

Anyhow- I still think he sounds like a dick, and in this case, the OP shouldn’t have to pay.

12

Do you think I could operate a plumber’s snake myself, with no risk of damaging the toilet? I’d be happy to do that in order to avoid future conflicts. My dad told me that when he tried to snake out his own toilet, the cable got stuck and he had a hell of a time getting it out, so I should leave it to the professionals.

I’m not sure how my landlord treats his other properties, but my house is a dive. It’s literally falling apart. None of the windows is square in the sills and half of them don’t open (or don’t close). There is a giant wasps nest in one of the windows that I’ve tried to kill, but b/c the window doesn’t open much, I can’t do it and therefore have wasps in my house periodically. The water is foul, the drain in the sink is very slow and will clog up if you run the water full bore, even if you’re not washing anything (he says the pipe doesn’t have the right “vacuum seal,” whatever that is). The basement floods with every rain and sometimes that blows out the pilot on the water heater. Other times, the basement water gets siphoned out into the driveway where my car is. He forgets to pay the utility bill, or we blow a fuse and I can’t get to the fuse box. It’s really pretty ghetto.

The bottom line is, I didn’t try to “flush too much,” or at least, not more than usual. If he could have snaked it out himself, then I think it’s pretty much his problem. He can take it out of my security deposit I guess, but I will not write him a check.

13

You can by what is called a “closet auger”, which is specifically used to unclog just the portion of the sewer line between the toilet and the wall. I doubt that you would have a problem getting it stuck. A full-fledged snake is not something you would want to purchase or attempt to use.

14

Or you could “buy” it, if you want… :smack:

15

Considering the landlord’s track record (forgetting to pay the utilities, so electricity and hot water are cut off!), I’m inclined to side with the tenant in this case.

Rubystreak-where you the one who had her cat killed by the landlord’s dog? Or was that Ruby?

16

It was me. I moved out the next week, sued the bastard, and eventually, his insurance company paid out. It covered the entire vet bill and my X-ray, plus interest.

I had zero time to find a place, and it was on the off-season for new rentals, so I wound up with this place. On the up side, it’s a huge apartment for not a lot of rent, relatively speaking.

I plan to buy a house next year so I don’t have to go through any of this horrible nonsense anymore. Different nonsense, probably, but at least it’ll be MY nonsense.