How to handle tenant damage from previous ownership?

Question

I recently acquired a property that has a group of tenants who have been living there for about 3 years. I went to the property today to do various things and one of the tenants told me that about a year ago, their upstairs toilet clogged and flooded. The water drained through the floor, through the kitchen cabinet and onto the kitchen floor. It caused damage to the wood above the cabinets (to where you can see through the ceiling) and possibly further damage that can't be seen. Due to its hidden location, this issue was hard to see without someone pointing it out and did not come up in the inspection.

Since I have no evidence of when this situation actually happened besides the tenant telling me when it happened, how do I approach deducting the repair costs from their security deposit when they move out? The damage is obviously from tenant negligence, but if they fight it in court it would be challenging to prove they were the ones who did it. Perhaps I should deduct and see what happens?

Nathan Gesner · Answer

There are two issues here:

1. It's not necessarily from Tenant neglect and you would be hard-pressed to prove that in court since you weren't around or involved at the time.

2. You bought the property with the damage already existing. How can you charge the tenants when you already accepted the condition during your inspection phase? As a buyer, you have a responsibility to inspect and verify what you are purchasing. If you had discovered the damage prior to purchase, you could have made the Seller and Tenants work out repairs and then purchased the property after renovation. Instead, you bought it and now you own it with the existing damage.

3. If the damage is not readily apparent from a professional inspection, why even bother with it?

Frank Chin · Answer

@Landon Clipp

Even if it could be proven a flood caused by a toilet clog, you cannot assume they caused the clog. I owned an older property, and tree root issues over time caused backups to the sewer line to the city sewer system, and I had to hire Roto Rooter to come with special equipment, camera to check out sewer lines. They also recommended newer toilets that flushed better.

I had clog issues over the years, and plumbers usually can tell me what caused it, like a tenant flushing down left over food, diaper's and I can then confront the tenant. Looks like it's long past where you can determine who, what, to blame.

Also, in these situations, tenants sometimes themselves suffer loses where they can countersue you once you go down the blame game path. They can say landlord negligence caused it, you bought the house as is, and your inspector missed it, so you missed your chance to go after the seller.

How to handle tenant damage from previous ownership?

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