Overweight tenants - Wax ring issue

[Amy Shari]

My new tenants have moved in now as of one week ago. They are both older, have a hard time walking around, both morbidly obese, and the male is recovering from heart surgery.

Prior to them moving in, my daughter and I spent the summer in the house, probably two out of the three months, while I fixed it up and tried to rent it out. We lived there and any issues that I noticed were repaired immediately. When they moved in, a week ago, there were zero issues.

Today, they phoned to say that there is water leaking from the base of the toilet. Of course, I know it is the wax ring. But the whole toilet, and wax ring was replaced exactly one year and three weeks ago.

I suspect that the toilet/wax ring could not handle the 300+ pounds of the male..and that in the process of him trying to get up from the toilet, which is pretty low as it is a cheaper model,the bolts were wrenched loose a bit and the wax ring broken.

I of course will replace it but here is the rub....if a fully functioning toilet with an intact wax ring was damaged due to the extra weight...a new one will also get damaged...I cannot replace this thing every other week...it is not due to neglect that it is breaking but due to the extra pressure. What all would you do?

[Jon Holdman]

If there's one thing I've learned, its that I probably don't really know what's going on after talking to the tenants. Usually takes a first hand look to understand the problem.

If the toilet is properly secured to the floor, it won't move. If it doesn't move, the seal can't be broken. From you description, it sounds like the toilet may not actually be secure. But until you get eyes on the situation, you probably don't really know what happened.