Home rental question.

[crt1530]

I live in a house with two other guys. Last month we found out that there had been a break in a water pipe underneath the house. Our water bill was $400. The landlord had the pipe fixed and the water bill has since been reduced to $120 by the utility company. Our typical water bill would be around $40. Can we get the landlord to cover the difference?

 

[DT4K]

I would think so.
If the extra cost was due to a leak that you didn't cause and had no way of knowing about.
The hard part would be proving how much of the water cost was actually due to a leak.

 

[bernse]

Probably shouldn't be too hard. Compare your usage for a few months. Be pretty easy to come up with a very realistic estimate with how much "leaked".

Unless your landlord is a really nice person, I doubt they'll want to make up the different. See if he will meet you halfway maybe? Although, if you pushed and threatened legal action that might buckle them.

 

[Ameesh]

probably not

 

[crt1530]

I'm going to go and ask nicely while I pay my rent. I'll post back with the result.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Originally posted by: crt1530
I'm going to go and ask nicely while I pay my rent. I'll post back with the result.

If you are good renters then your landlord will likely cover the extra 80$ or so. It makes sense to keep good renters happy.