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Who is at fault??

Posted By: Patel
Thursday, November 11th, 2010 5:07 pm

Who is at fault??

NJ General Topics

Today I received an email from my tenant that the water in toilet was not stopping and then suddenly water in toilet tank stopped coming from the source itself. Now I am currently not in country so I called my friend and asked him to visit the place to check the situation however meanwhile I was checking the rental agreement I have scanned on my computer and based on this rental agreement this is what is written in agreement as given below.

====================================================================

15. Tenant’s Repair and Maintenance: The Tenant Shall
a) Pay for all repairs, replacements and damages caused by the act or neglect of the tenant, the tenant’s family, domestic employees, guests or visitors, which includes but not limited to sewer and plumbing drainage problems caused by the Tenant.
16. Landlord’s Repair and Maintenance : The Landlord shall make any necessary repairs and replacements to the vital facility serving the property, such as heating, plumbing and electrical system, within a reasonable time after notice by tenant. The tenant may be liable for cost of such repairs and replacement pursuant to Section 15. The landlord shall not be liable for interruption of services or inconvenience resulting from delays in making repairs or replacements if due to circumstances beyond Landlord’s reasonable control.

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So it says that tenant shall pay for the repair, damages or replacement caused by tenant’s act or neglact.

So how can we say whose fault is this? Since I am landlord but do not live in that home and when I gave this place it was completely in working condition until yesterday

Please advise,

Patel

Originally posted 2010-02-26 02:44:15.

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One Response to “Who is at fault??”


Landlord

Landlord

March 16th, 2010 4:10 am

The question is more about WHY the toilet stopped working.  In my opinion I would just fix the toilet and keep my tenant happy.  A leaking toilet is usually a very simple fix and will cost you probably no more than $12 for new plumbing parts.
Most likely, the tenant didn’t cause the toilet to malfunction due to neglect or failure to maintain it.  Its just one of those things that happens and should probably be your responsibility as a landlord.
To avoid this problem in the future you should change your agreement.  If the wording leaves too many questions such as who is responsible etc,  it probably isn’t doing you much good to have it in the contract.  I’ve been doing this long enough to know that your tenant will say that it isn’t his fault, even if it was.    Instead, in your lease agreement you can have wording that says something like this:
——————————————————————–
Repairs and Responsibilities
Tenant is responsible for any and all repairs regardless of fault up to the amount of $50.  Any repairs above $50 will be the responsibility of the landlord unless the repair or damage was caused due to neglect or irresponsibility; then the amount shall be entirely the burden of the tenant.  Furthermore, tenant shall only use professionally state licensed individuals to preform said repairs.  
———————————————————————————-
I use something similar to the above paragraph.  It seems to prevent a lot of questions and repair problems.
I hope that helped.





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