Am I responsible for tenant's excessive water bill?

[Andy Kolb]

Hello All,  

This is my first post and I just started investing in single family, long term rental, homes at the beginning of the year.   

At what point am I responsible for paying, or paying part of, an excessive water bill?  Up until a couple of months ago, the water usage was typical, I think around 8,000 gallons but then it spiked to over 64,000 gallons.  The tenants are a couple of young  brothers who I'm finding are treating the house as an apartment an do not realize they have some responsibility in maintaining the yard and reporting any leaks or damage.  I investigated for any water leaks and only found two sprinkler head pipes were broken.  This is a small yard so there are only 3 zones and probably around 15 sprinkler heads.  I also found they had adjusted the timing on one zone to 1.5 hours 4 times a week, all of the others are where I set them which was 4 minutes.  I made the repairs 2 days after they told me about the broken pipes but they are still asking me to help them with the water bill.  I have had a plumber investigate and he found no leaks in the house or meter. 64k gallons is a lot.  My only other scenario is the neighbor with the pool may have been borrowing water although I have no proof.

What else do you recommend I do?  I think I have done my part and a landlord but I could be wrong, please advise.

Thanks for any advice,

Andy