Burst pipes - renters or landlords responsibility

[Vikas Ahuja]

hi folks,

Need some advise. I had new tenants who had moved in 3 weeks ago. They called me last night and said that the water pipes used for oil heating had burst. My handyman thinks that this is because the heat was not turned on. The tenants obviously disagree but there is no way to find out if they did actually had the heat turned on. 

My lease says that they should maintain the temperature at a minimum of 55 degrees, last night when I went there, the thermostat was set to 47 degrees.

Fixing this is going to cost me $1100. So my question is who should bear the cost of fixing this problem. Do I offer the tenants to pay half of the costs or just suck it up myself. 

Any advise will be very much appreciated.

thanks. Vikas

[Stephen Schaefer]

Sounds like you're stuck. Pipes don't just burst under normal use, they can leak. Your local weather says 31 with a low of 24 tonight. Sounds like they were gone and turned the heat off. Came home, turned it back up, noticed the leak, and turned it back down so it didn't kick on. Wild guess. Even then, with the heat all the way off, it'd take a day or two for the inside temps to drop to below freezing. Even though freezing is 32, generally pipes won't even burst unless its more near 20 degrees, and more importantly, over time. I wonder if they were gone for quite a few days.

If I had to take a guess, they were gone for a few days with the heat off. I mean, why else would it be off? Sure, perhaps turn it down 8 hours while at work, but not off. They probably just flicked it down (or off button) while walking out the door. But ya, how can you prove it.