I am shocked he thinks he can get away with withholding all of this money from every tenant of his that I have talked to, especially considering HE DOES NOT EVEN MAKE THE REPAIRS and it seems to me that the itemized list of damages costs are way overpriced, considering he made us unclog the shower ourselves by "getting a snake less than $5 from Walmart" fixed the porch that "would not pass inspection" for $20, and has to hide house damages from the insurance inspector because the house is SO OLD and falling apart and he doesn't do anything to fix it, and I guarantee he will not use this money withheld from us to repair anything, and blame it on the next tenant! 

Additionally, there are a lot of snake oil salesman out there.

The plumber should snake the kitchen drain line all the way to the larger main line.

Good chance it's plugged downstream aways so might need to snake that sh** out also.

Our concern was someone coming in and snaking our deal which is what I thought was meant by protecting ourselves.

Thunder Bay.What is the market like in South Eastern Ontario?

They put a "snake" down the hold, and sometimes there is a cutter attached at the head.  

Sometimes when I'm over there snaking the same drain that always clogs, or whatever it is, I get to the point where I just want to sell the dang thing. 

Like a tenant complaining that the sink won't drain - I'd expect a handyman to snake it first before calling in the $90/hr plumber. 

There was a complaint that there was a backup and I had it snaked a couple of times and the plumber found rags.