Dishwasher and tenants

[Mason Schreck]

I am an owner of a duplex in Cincinnati. We are currently house hacking, living in 1 side and our tenants in the other. They reached out to me in regards to their dishwasher not working. We reached out to an appliance repair company to come fix the issue only to find out that our tenants turned the switch that powers on the dishwasher. The bill came to 70 dollars. Am I as a landlord and owner of the property required to pay this bill because of the fault of our tenants not realizing they turned off the switch? I know in a normal circumstance, if the dishwasher stopped working I would obviously pay the bill. Any help here!? 

[Danielle Jackson]

You will most likely receive a varied response to this question. Did you look at it before calling a repair person? 

For something like this, I always default to how much I value the tenant relationship. Even if legally I can pass this on to the tenants to be paid, I always weigh the risk of ruining the relationship.