My renters - Lying or telling the Truth??

[Tom Valichka]

Hey BP, I am curious if anyone else has ran into a situation like the one i encountered recently with my renters in a single family home i have near Atlanta. Of course, when i go out of time i get a frantic call from my renters saying there is a good plumbing leak coming from under the sink, water is on the kitchen floor and leaking into the basement. Instantly, i call my plumber and line him up to go out there the next day. Being out of town on business, i could not make it there myself.

My plumber gets to the home and does everything he can think of to fix the problem. Interestingly enough, he calls me back and there is NOTHING wrong. He said he ran all the sinks, dishwasher, flushed every toilet.  An hour later, there was NO LEAK. It has not rained, there was no intrusions from the roof, sidewalls, basement, anything.  He told me he could see in the basement where there had been some water, but it had all been cleaned up or evaporated (unfinished basement thankfully). 

My question to you all is, there was obviously water there at some point, but if there was no leak what happened? Did they spill something? Did they overflow the sink on accident and tell me it was a plumbing issue so they wouldn't pay damages? Did they over flow the dishwasher?  This has been the first incident like this with these folks. Is this going to be a recurring thing? Anyone ever deal with these situations where the renters may be trying to scam their way out of paying damages?  Or am i overreacting and should brush it under the rug?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Tom

[Bryan O.]

@Tom Valichka in this case, @Jason Hirko's lease clause would not have mattered because you always want them to call about water. If you use a clause like that, be certain they understand what things they should be calling out of hours for, otherwise when the pipe does burst they're going to call you the next day because they don't want to risk having to pay an after-hours fee, and "hey, it's not my house."

Something obviously happened, but who knows what. I give every one of my tenants a big bucket/bowl when they move in and tell them to put it under the sink. That way if anything leaks (slow leak) the bucket will catch it and they'll notice it filling up rather than soaking into the cabinet below. Helps us both. Doesn't help you in this situation, but maybe worth doing anyway.