Tenant Wants Rent Reduction b/c of Leak
With this winter’s crazy weather, just last month, a leak appeared from our patio (which is also the roof of an extension) into our tenant’s apartment. I have been on the scene each time it has leaked (on two separate occasions over the last month), and I have been trying different things to repair, or…
With this winter’s crazy weather, just last month, a leak appeared from our patio (which is also the roof of an extension) into our tenant’s apartment. I have been on the scene each time it has leaked (on two separate occasions over the last month), and I have been trying different things to repair, or at least fix the leak until the weather gets warmer. My tenant keeps mentioning a rent reduction or credit for the rooms that have the leak. What should I do?
I’m a renter, had water coming in through the window frames of my apartment after every intense rainfall following the tornado in the fall, wish I had asked for a rent reduction as the LL’s were shockingly unresponsive to what I thought should have been a serious worry for them.
As usual, Vinca is spot-on. You want your tenant to take leaks seriously – you need to treat them seriously. Money = seriousness to some people. As a landlord, I would find some way to show goodwill to good tenants. $100 is a very small price to pay for a good relationship with your tenant – look through this forum for examples of the kind of crazy that could be visited upon you.
If its taken more than 2 weeks or so to fix the leak and it affects the way they use the apartment then they definitely deserve a rent reduction.
They would get one in housing court, so take care of it and don’t let it come to that.
Like someone else, I rent here in NYC (Queens) but own a three family in PA. My best recommendation is offer a reduction as good measure. It goes a long way and keeping a good, reliable tenant is well worth some small concessions. Of course, let them know it’s will not an ongoing credit for every problem like they’re dealing with the cable company.
smeyers418 — that’s the approach you take for a large apartment building with anonymous tenants. This sounds like an apartment in this person’s HOME. There’s a big difference here… but it doesn’t take away from what I said above.
unless the room is uninhabitable, the fact there is a small leak you are fixing doesn’t get a rebate. Even if its uninhabitable if its repaired in a reasonable time likewise no rebate.
This winter has been just brutal on houses. Tons of snow and a lot of melt and freeze. Leaks that may have existed for years are being revealed like crazy. I would offer a rent reduction — big enough to show you care, but one you can bear and not like pro rated to the square footage of the whole room or anything. Maybe like a 5% reduction.
BTW, forgot to say: If the situation were reversed, and there was a leak that the tenant never mentioned, you can be sure that we’d be reading a post where the LL was hollering about collecting damages.
My above comments are made in the context that the landlord is actively working on the leak problem and keeping the tenant informed about measures being taken to fix the problem.