Washing Machine Flood.. Who's Responsible?

[Robert Nason]

Hi, All!

I received a frantic call from a tenant telling me that one of the washing machine was flooding. The overflow went into two units and down a hallway. I called my appliance repair company and they found no issues with the machine and suspects the tenant overloaded the washer? All the drains, hoses and drum were inspected with no issues. Where the water was overflowing out of the top its seems to be the only logical conclusion.

The tenant denies over loading and is saying that he is not responsible and will take me to court if I attempt to use his security deposit. He states its my responsibility to take care of the flood.  I should use my insurance. Additionally I noticed that the lock on the machine was broken and the tenants were over-riding the coin slot and turning the machine manually. When  emptying the machine it had approx. $10 in it and the others had in excess of $100 each.  My out of pocket expense thus far is $1200.00 for cleaning carpet, replacing carpets, new flooring, sheet rock etc etc.

The question is do I let this tenant off the hook or hold their feet to the fire and deduct it from his security deposit? Cameras are being installed next week!! I'm ok with losing this tenant, these units are in high demand.