Tenant left water on for a week and destroyed my house

[Justin Fraser]

On Friday, the next door neighbor to one of my rentals in Trenton, NJ called me to let me know he had water in his basement, could hear water running in the house, and that he hadn't seen my tenants in over a week. Turns out, the tenants have been staying with other family for about a week, but before they left they "accidentally" left the water on in the bathroom on the 2nd floor. I guess the water comes out faster than it drains.

The water ran down through the upstairs bathroom into the floors, and destroyed the kitchen ceiling downstairs. It kept going and tore up the hardwood floors, got into the kitchen cabinets and appliances and made it's way to the basement. When the water was finally turned off there was 8 inches of water in the basement. The water remediation company had to pump water out for two days, and say it should take at least a week to remove all the water logged damage in the house. They essentially keep ripping things out until they stop finding moisture.

Some lessons learned: 

• Always have a great insurance policy! Thankfully I have a great one and my deductible is only 2k.
• Always give your next door neighbors your business cards. If my neighbor had not called, the water would probably still be running. 
• Always take as large of a security deposit as possible. In NJ, we are allowed 1.5 months as the deposit.

At the end of the day, real estate investing is still a risk, but we protect ourselves against damage like this with insurance policies. This destroyed house is a rare occurrence, but if you own enough rental property and have enough tenants, a damaged house is bound to happen eventually.