long showers

the landlord was not hostile. in fact, some of the hostile responses fail to take into account that the landlord may have an interest in finding a way not to renew the tenan’ts lease. after all, even in nyc, the landlord still owns the property, and tenants who take property rights in usa lightly are occasionally in for a bad surprise. talk to some people in the rest of the country or the planet and you may gain some perspective helpful to all involved.

This is actually interesting. On one hand, I am a die-hard environmentalist and very frugal, on the other if my landlord thought it was appropriate to discuss my flushing habits with me I would basically say “F*cuk off, tightwad!”

Mr. Brown, you as landlord have a specific sphere of influence. You can and should install the most efficient mechanicals possible, including a low-water use toilet. But then the tenants come, and they are paying you, and therefore they have the right to live there in their own quirky, wasteful little way. You cannot post signage that basically says nothing but “I listen to you.” That’s intrusive, it’s outside your sphere of influence, it’s messed up!

I’m also a landlord and have a similar situation. I have a tenant that always flushes twice after using the John. I want it to stop but don’t know to approach the subject. I cring every time this happens, just think of all the water wasted, the implications on the environment. I was thinking about posting a sign in the hallway, ‘if its yellow let it stay, if its brown flush it down, just once’. Do I have any other recourse? Anyone else experiencing this?

OP:

I left you a hostile comment, please understand that your approach to this situation is also, well, hostile. It’s your responsibility to provide hot water and you are pushing your responsibility onto a tenant. A twenty minute shower is not crazy, it’s similar to taking a bath. And if you’ve not had troubles in the past… maybe your water heater is on its last legs and needs to be replaced.

I was actually talking about this at work today, and all the people I eat lunch with take twenty minute showers regularly. I don’t understand why you think that it is okay to sort of offer hot water.

You’re in a tough position, but look at it this way: you saved money somewhere along the line by not giving each apartment its own water heater and meter (either by not doing the necessary work or by buying at a lower price from whoever didn’t do the work). Now you’re kind-of stuck with what the tenant is doing.

If I were in your position I would definitely put low-flow showerheads on all of the showers, but if that doesn’t solve the problem I think you should look into a bigger water heater. I get 20 minute showers, so that just doesn’t seem outrageous to me, and if a landlord ever spoke to me about it I would tell them to mind their own business.

You may also want to put it into the next round of leases that the low-flow showerheads are mandatory. I know that if my landlord put one in, I would have my wrench out to remove it as soon as s/he left.