Water leak increases tenants bill

[Basment Dweller]

Hi all,

To all the landlords out there, what do you do if you discover a water leak only when you get the utility bill and the bill is 10x it's normal amount?

Do you impose that cost on the tenant? I haven't really checked my lease but is there normally a provision for this risk to be carried by the tenant in standard lease agreements?

BD

[HR Solutions]

Its not the tenants fault that there is a leak - the cost should be for the owner.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

You may be covered through the municipal insurance

[Houses4Rent]

What is municipal insurance? Never heard of it.

Its not the owners fault either by default.

The big consumption could be many things.
reading error
estimate only
if leak is before the water meter its not billed and the councils baby (must still be fixed as water is precious water)
if its after the meter it will be billed for and ultimately owners baby
could also be a faulty water meter, which is council property
could be a running cistern
could be wrong pool operation
could be an mis-programmed irrigation system which waters overnight undetected (a flat battery could cause this)
etc.
look for wet patches.,

Bottomline:
establish first what the root cause is and then take the next step.

It also helps to read yoru lease.

[Basment Dweller]

Leak is not the tenants fault but how does the landlord determine how much water was used by the leak and how much used by the tenant during that month?

The leak could've been going for 5 hours or 5 days, how do we know? See where I'm going with this?

@ Anthony 'Municipal Insurance?', I wasn't aware something like that existed, what is it, and how do I claim?

[Houses4Rent]

Take the average tenant's consumption in the past if you want to determine what the tenant used and allow for seaonality

[HR Solutions]

Leak is not the tenants fault but how does the landlord determine how much water was used by the leak and how much used by the tenant during that month?

In your first post you said it was ten time more ...... so you know.

when you get the utility bill and the bill is 10x it's normal amount?

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

Check your electricity rates bill
It should have a line item, water insurance.
They have a formula to calculate leak.
Average consumption etc

[Houses4Rent]

Electricity bill? I thought we are talking water.

I have seen thousands of Cape Town council bills by now and never saw a line item of water insurance. Maybe its a Durban thing?

[Basment Dweller]

Good input thanks,

I think what I'll do is take an average for the last six months and offer to contribute something to offset the overrun. Tenant will have to fit the rest of the bill.