One of those days with an idiot tenant.

[Roger S.]

Today was one of those days that makes you wonder why we do this. First off, let me mention that I work a FT W2 job, my hours are 6PM to 6AM and my commute is a 3 hour roundtrip. So last night at work, my wife calls me and tells me one of our tenants called and said her son flushed the toilet and it didn't go down. And there was no way they could survive the night without a toilet. She wanted a plumber called (Saturday night about midnight) or us to put her up in a hotel. Keep in mind, about 6 months ago, I pulled about 5 lbs of baby wipes out of her drain and didn't charge her for that.

I told her that she could survive the night and I would be there as soon as I stopped to rent an auger and made my way home. She whined through a few more text messages but I finally got through to her that that was the way it was going to be.

So, stopped by Home Depot, spent 50 bucks on a power auger and went to work.   Ran it in from the cleanout, no luck.  Hauled that 100 lb ***** up onto the roof and ran it down the vent, no luck, even though the I could see the auger in the cleanout.   I'm steaming now and I told her that there was something in the toilet, she had protested all night and day that there wasn't.  She then says in a small voice that her son told her he had dropped a toy car in it and flushed , by accident, uh huh.

So, I pulled the toilet and sure enough, the pipe was empty.   I have a toilet auger, but it didn't matter which way I ran it in, it wouldn't budge.   Back to Home Depot for a toilet.   Get the toilet installed and everything cleaned up, hauled the old toilet out and decided to find out what it was.  A few raps with a hammer on the siphon tube and VOILA!.  Not a toy car, but a toy 55 gallon drum that was jammed in there as tight as dads old hat band.

So, 4 hours later, after a 15 hour night on my regular job, she has a nice shiny new toilet.  I presented her a bill for the auger rental, the toilet, the charge I will pay at the land fill, and 4 hours of my labor at 25 bucks an hour, 50% of my W2 wages, and way less than a plumber would charge.  I venture a plumber called out on Saturday night would have been close to a grand to do all that work.

Her response was "Well, I don't have that kind of money, and I should only be responsible for the toilet, not labor, not disposal, not the auger rental.  This is your house and if that's the case you should have told me and I would have had someone else put the toilet in."

HAHAHAHAHA.   Like, since it's my house you can tear it up and I have to pay.    I told her in no uncertain terms that she is not allowed to have just anyone work on my house and that the bill was due with next months rent.

SHEESH.

[Michael Hayworth]

You have my sympathy. My last one before we made the change below was a pink toy phone. The one before that was a tenant that dumped about a gallon of kitchen grease down the pipes.

FWIW, I have adopted an idea I saw from someone else on here. We put an addendum on our leases now - and we put it in big type and make 'em sign it:

PLUMBING DRAINS ARE OPERATING PROPERLY AS OF YOUR MOVE-IN. BABY WIPES (EVEN "FLUSHABLE WIPES"), FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS, HAIR, KITCHEN GREASE, AND A WIDE VARIETY OF OTHER THINGS WILL CAUSE DRAIN BLOCKAGES. ANY PLUMBING BLOCKAGE THAT OCCURS IS ASSUMED TO BE CAUSED BY THE TENANT. IT IS TENANT'S RESPONSIBILITY TO CALL A PLUMBER AND HAVE BLOCKAGE CLEARED, AT TENANT'S EXPENSE. THE ONLY CAUSE OF A PLUMBING BACKUP THAT  WOULD BE LANDLORD'S RESPONSIBILITY WOULD BE BROKEN DRAIN PIPES (which would include actual breaks, tree roots in the drains, and similar items). IN THE EVENT THAT A LICENSED PLUMBER BELIEVES THE PROBLEM IS BROKEN PIPES, WE WILL RUN A CAMERA TO VERIFY, AND IF THAT IS THE CASE, WILL REIMBURSE TENANT FOR PLUMBING EXPENSES.