Who pays - Landlord or tenant?

[Tanya Maslach]

Hi all,

After lengthy conversations with our hired prop mgmt company, I'm coming to this group for more guidance.

Location: Denver, CO
Property: LTR ending July 2025. No issues on property, except a faulty leaky toilet that was fixed same day as tenant posted maintenance issue. Done in 15 min.
Tenant: Has paid on time over last 1.5 years. Ends lease on July 2025.

In December, tenant said there was an odor coming from garbage disposal.

Tenant had tried their own DIY fixes for a month with no resolution. 
We are unaware of what those DIY fixes were.

Within 24 hours of maintenance request, we had our plumber there.  He looked at issue, confirmed there was nothing funtionally wrong with the disposal or its plumbing structure.

We and the Plumber gave the tenant instructions on how to use an enzymatic solution he had, and that the plubmer told us it sometimes happens with grease and/or food that is left in the disposal.

(We lived in that house for years and in other properties we knew this was the case)

Disposal: Was newly placed in property before tenant moved in.

The fee: $145.

We put the fee on the tenant's following month's rent as their responsibility due to resolution provided and plumber's confirmation that the disposal was working fine and structure had no issues.

Tenant has disputed the charge, ("other landlords would be appreciative of our notice" "we don't eat a lot" "isn't that what a garbage disposal is for? food?" and other comments)

We have stated the position that the disposal was functioning and in proper form without issue. So odors coming from use are the tenant's responsibility.  We did not know what kind of DIY fixes they tried before a plumber was sent out to look at and/or fix the issue so are not sure if something with that caused odor to worsen.  Plumber confirmed that some DIY fixes are both bad for disposals and simply do nothing.

Thoughts on this from you all?

Thank you for your candid feedback and guidance.

Tanya