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My wife, kids and I moved into a home on February 1st. We are renting of course. But anyways about half way through our second month living here the downstairs bathroom floods and flows out into our living area also. We contacted our land lord and she came out with her "handy man" to see what the problem was. He dumped some drano down the toilet. Next day the same thing happens. It took till today April first to have a real plumber come out, put a camera down the drain, find the problem and fix it. Shes a nice lady. But should I have to pay another full months rent when I have not been able to use my washer, dryer and being really cautious with our showers/baths and of course our down stairs. Its a finished down stairs with a really big living area/play room and a full bathroom with our laundry room in it. We are in minnesota. Is there any legal rights I have? Or should I just pay the full months rents for only being able to use 2/3rds of our home. Please give me some input. Thanks.
If the landlady is experienced they probably have a smart lawyer and that smart lawyer will probably say something like "since the renter was in the place for a whole month before there were issues with the drain I could easily convince anyone that the renter is at fault for overloading the drains and thus they are responsible for repairs and you are actually a good kind landlady for not charging for the repair bill..."
Now if you think you can find a lawyer that won't charge as much as the rent maybe that lawyer will be able to convince the judge you deserve to get a break on your rent for not having full use of the rental...
She is repairing the damage? I would talk to her about some sort of settlement rather than just withholding rent. Usually you can't just withhold rent without following specific steps and for dioecious reasons
Last edited by Electrician4you; 04-01-2014 at 09:17 PM..
My wife, kids and I moved into a home on February 1st. We are renting of course. But anyways about half way through our second month living here the downstairs bathroom floods and flows out into our living area also. We contacted our land lord and she came out with her "handy man" to see what the problem was. He dumped some drano down the toilet. Next day the same thing happens. It took till today April first to have a real plumber come out, put a camera down the drain, find the problem and fix it. Shes a nice lady. But should I have to pay another full months rent when I have not been able to use my washer, dryer and being really cautious with our showers/baths and of course our down stairs. Its a finished down stairs with a really big living area/play room and a full bathroom with our laundry room in it. We are in minnesota. Is there any legal rights I have? Or should I just pay the full months rents for only being able to use 2/3rds of our home. Please give me some input. Thanks.
Did the real plumber ultimately fix the problem? If so I would pay in full as required and forget it.
If not, you might try small claims court and sue for breach of contract/damages.
It's important to stay on schedule with the rent, if you get behind the landlord can begin the eviction process or at the very least keep any unpaid rent/late fees out of the security deposit. Any issues with the property should not be handled by withholding rent. Those kinds of issues are best dealt with separately.
You'll have much more credibility in court (if it comes to that) if you're current on your rent. If you're a good tenant, the landlord will want to do whatever possible to keep you around.
Yes, she did fix the problem. She cant blame it on me in any way. There is video footage of the drain being plugged by roots. Im more upset that it took her a month and a half to fix something that only cost $350 in the end. Our house smelled like wet carpet the whole time. It was just a stress trip. I wasnt able to use my downstairs. Let alone my washer and dryer when I have 2 kids and a wife. Idk.... I'll probably just pay the rent.
Check your state laws, see the sticky thread at the top of the Renting forum. Many states outline very specific steps you must take before you can withhold rent. It would probably be a better approach for you to reasonably discuss the issues with your landlady and ask for a reduction of rent. There are only two answers she can give you and one of them is yes.
Well, you have to pay your rent, until you work out something with your landlord. You can only withhold rent if it's a habitability problem that is currently happening. You got your problem fixed, so you can't withhold rent at this point.
I think you could write a letter to your landlord asking for a rent abatement for the time you weren't able to use your washer/dryer , etc., etc. That would be fair. If the LL says no, you could always sue in small claims court.
You'll probably win, unless you waited to tell your LL of the problem. In other words, how long did it take the LL to fix the problem once you let them know about it?
It would probably be a better approach for you to reasonably discuss the issues with your landlady and ask for a reduction of rent.
Absolutely. You say your landlady is "a nice lady", so sit down and have a pleasant little chat with her pointing out the inconvenience this has caused and ask if it would be reasonable for her to give you a little break on the rent to compensate you. Without going overboard you can have a reasonable figure in mind, even if only to compensate you for having to take your laundry to the laundromat a few times. I'm not sure how you're coming up with not being able to use 2/3 of your living space.
Forget about all this suing/court advice. Your landlady was responsive to the problem and took care of it and going to court on something like this will get you absolutely nowhere and only put a huge wedge between you and a nice landlady who'll not renew your lease.
Never withhold rent....that's something that needs to be done thru the courts...not because 'you feel like it'. Talk with your landlord...but to be honest with you, she did address it, she did make it good and while you were inconvenienced a bit (had to go to Laundromat)..it's not worth withholding rent. You can ask her to reimburse you for you laundry fees, but don't expect her to give 2 weeks rent credit...that's just asking too much.
You can't expect a landlord or plumber to come in and automatically assume the worst...what if you toilet just clogged? What if one of your children flushed something down the toilet? What if your wife's tampons clogged it?.....you have no idea until you eliminate problems.
Yes, she did fix the problem. She cant blame it on me in any way. There is video footage of the drain being plugged by roots. Im more upset that it took her a month and a half to fix something that only cost $350 in the end. Our house smelled like wet carpet the whole time. It was just a stress trip. I wasnt able to use my downstairs. Let alone my washer and dryer when I have 2 kids and a wife. Idk.... I'll probably just pay the rent.
I thought the problem occurred in Mid-March (aka halfway through your 2nd month). Which means it took 2 weeks to solve the problem. However, she responded quicjly after you initially called about the issue and had them use draino. So it show's she is responsive.
I don't think you could legally get away with holding back rent in this case. She solved it within a reasonable time frame and you were not left without at least 1 working toilets/shower/sink at any time because you had other bathrooms that worked. A judge would look at whether you had another bathroom/shower/sink that worked. A judge would look kindly on her for coming out quickly with the draino and then scheduling a plumber with a camera and solving. It takes time to schedule a plumber with a camera because many don't have them.
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