Tenants allow Pipes to burst in rental home

[Landlord J]

Jurisdiction

New York

Hello,
Would appreciate any advice.

I had sent my tenants an email regarding the colder temps that were approaching along with instructions from my home owners insurance of how to maintain the home to prevent pipes from freezing and bursting.

Even with my best efforts of sending them this friendly notice I received a text about a week or so later that the pipes had burst in the downstairs bathroom and laundry room.
The pipes burst in 12 places including the pipes to the radiators.

The tenants report that the space was heated but that they did not let the water drip from the faucets. They also said that they never saw my email.

In any case I had to fix all the pipes which some were in the interior walls which of course was a huge expense. In order to protect my property I fixed it without pointing a finger at them. I am still waiting for a remediation quote as well as contractor quote to fix the walls. I hope my homeowners insurance will cover these?
After being there till 1am with the plumbers the next afternoon I got a call that the heat was not working. Sent the crew back over and the switch to the furnace had been turned off. The temp downstairs was 47deg.
I do not have a set temp request in our lease but I do have a liability clause which states that the ....tenant must pay for damages suffered and any money spent by landlord for any claim arising from any act or neglect of tenant....
I don't know if that clause helps considering I would be the one with the claim for damages caused by their neglect? As you can see I am not an attorney. Or maybe it would work the other way as they put a claim against me to fix the walls or mold. I will if they are willing to pay for it as it was a result of their neglect?
Unfortunatley I wil be paying for all of it just wanted to know how I can protect myself from this happening again?
I can send notices but if they do not adhere to the warnings of potential damage or decide that they don't want to heat that part of the house where does that leave me? BTW it's snowing right now as I am writing this... I of course am going to send them another notice with instructions. Thank you for listening to my rant and any advice would be appreciated.

 

[army judge]

You can't make a silk purse out if a sow's ear, no more than you can transform an irresponsible deadbeat into a responsible tenant.

You can require your tenants to obtain renters policy for the term of the lease. Even that requirement doesn't mean a deadbeat won't be unable to cancel the policy. If, however, a deadbeat can't obtain one, that's a clue that your potential tenant could cause you problems.

Whether this particular tenant is liable for the repair costs would most likely be determined by a court. Even then, a deadbeat won't have any assets for you to levy against, even if you obtained a judgment.

That leaves you with obtaining insurance.
You can also try to screen your potential tenants better, but that won't protect you from someone having a mental breakdown, a substance abuse issue, a divorce, other criminal law problems, or from losing their source of income.

Mama always said, "There are so many idiots in the world that all you can do is try to identify and avoid them."

 

[adjusterjack]

I'm a retired insurance professional with 35 years experience.

I do not have a set temp request in our lease but I do have a liability clause which states that the ....tenant must pay for damages suffered and any money spent by landlord for any claim arising from any act or neglect of tenant....

That's all well and good, but as a practical matter (I'm also a former landlord) proving negligence on the part of a tenant and collecting is quite problematic.

Or maybe it would work the other way as they put a claim against me to fix the walls or mold. I will if they are willing to pay for it as it was a result of their neglect?

That's no good either, you have to make the repairs whether they pay for it or not. Otherwise, it's constructive eviction and that could cost you a bundle.

how I can protect myself from this happening again?

You can't. Your property is in a part of the country where temperatures get below freezing and pipes often freeze no matter what precautions you take. Even owner occupied homes suffer that fate. NY was part of my claims territory before I retired. I had a lot of frozen pipe claims there.

I can send notices but if they do not adhere to the warnings of potential damage or decide that they don't want to heat that part of the house where does that leave me?

Up a frozen creek without a paddle. Tenants are tenants. You do the best you can, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

All I can suggest that you do is make sure your pipes are well insulated.

If you want to strengthen your lease make it so that the tenant's failure to keep the temperature set at a certain degree level becomes a breach of contract issue in the event of frozen pipes rather than a negligence issue. Although it's still going to be next to impossible to get any money out of a tenant.

Apropos of nothing, I had 3 rentals for 20 years and had more grief and expense than you'll probably see with yours. I sold them in 1998 and never looked back.

 

[Highwayman]

Email can be unreliable. If you really wanted your tenant to get the information you should have followed up with a phone call.

 

[cbg]

I'd just like to point out that we took all the recommended precautions a few weeks ago and our kitchen pipes still froze during an unprecedented cold snap. Sometimes things happen and it's no one's fault.

 

[Betty3]

I agree with cbg - there is only so much you can do to protect your pipes.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Sorry to hear about what happened. I'm a New York licensed attorney and had the pleasure of appearing in Landlord Tenant court several times (one of the most unique places in this country.) I don't really think you need to get into any landlord tenant specific law because it's an issue pretty well covered by @adjusterjack and @Highwayman nailed two very important issues. Unless there is specific language in the lease which may shift responsibility, we'll have to assume that what has been said represents the lease terms.

1) Burden of proof. You have no negligence case without having some proof which makes it clear that it is more likely than not that your tenants were negligent AND were the proximate cause of this issue. In this instance it appears you have none that would directly tie in these tenants to what happened. And it's not likely that you could obtain such proof. As you said, sometimes things happen, especially in winter, and there is nothing clear that indicates a sufficient likelihood that the result occurred because of one specific act of negligence by an individual tenant.

2) Adequacy of Notice. Let's assume this even makes a difference. You claim that you sent an email. While it seems OK on the surface, if you think about it you'd never get anywhere in court. If you're the landlord, why didn't you have a physical notice sent to the tenant with some proof of sending or delivery? Why not a phone call and at least a voice mail? The least reliable manner of sending notice is via email, which could easily get filtered by a spam box. Let's be honest - if paying you was contingent upon actual receipt of a notice, would you be sending an email? Of course not. You'd make sure that the notice was received or at least has a very good chance of not being intercepted, lost or otherwise misdelivered. Leases may also contain terms of communication but I think the point is clear here.

As a landlord this can be tough. You're going to have moments like these and which I believe why insurance exists to try to mitigate damage caused by events where fault is impossible or unable to be attributed. Good luck.

 

[Landlord J]

Hello,
I wanted to thank everyone for their input and advice.
Just to clarify a couple of things that I had not originally posted.
I did call the tenant got no answer left a message as well as text and left a copy of instructions for cold weather maintenance in the rental home for the tenants. I met with them and went over things in person when they took possession. Email and text has been the best way to reach them in the past. I have sent notices such as late rent reminders to them by mail as per our lease. Since they were already in possession of the instructions which are also refreanced in our rider to the lease agreement I felt that a reminder would be sufficient. As of now everything seems to be moving along in the right direction. All I can do is hope that they adhere to the instructions and the warnings in the future which not only come from me but are displayed on every TV in the northeast when there is a storm or freezing temps approaching. Thank you again to all the above that replied.

 

[Landlord J]

I'm a retired insurance professional with 35 years experience.



That's all well and good, but as a practical matter (I'm also a former landlord) proving negligence on the part of a tenant and collecting is quite problematic.


That's no good either, you have to make the repairs whether they pay for it or not. Otherwise, it's constructive eviction and that could cost you a bundle.



You can't. Your property is in a part of the country where temperatures get below freezing and pipes often freeze no matter what precautions you take. Even owner occupied homes suffer that fate. NY was part of my claims territory before I retired. I had a lot of frozen pipe claims there.



Up a frozen creek without a paddle. Tenants are tenants. You do the best you can, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

All I can suggest that you do is make sure your pipes are well insulated.

If you want to strengthen your lease make it so that the tenant's failure to keep the temperature set at a certain degree level becomes a breach of contract issue in the event of frozen pipes rather than a negligence issue. Although it's still going to be next to impossible to get any money out of a tenant.

Apropos of nothing, I had 3 rentals for 20 years and had more grief and expense than you'll probably see with yours. I sold them in 1998 and never looked back.

Hi there,
Yes our next lease will have a clause regarding the temp setting. We have a clause now for humidity levels and equip our tenants with dehumidifiers. Our tenants in the past have been ok we really haven't had any real problems up until now. Actually ever tenant has left their mark but nothing that I couldn't handle. I guess that's par for the course when dealing with tenants .Thank you for your reply.