The drain cleaner snakes or jets the line and rarely are they able to see the items flowing past.Also in some cases it's a combination, it could be an old cast iron pipe with a rough inside surface full of rust, which started to act like velcro to things that flows past, or a slight settlement causing a belly, which again impedes the flow, then the tenant pours down grease, pasta and bean, well, you get the idea.Most of the time you end up eating the cost especially if the plumber can't tell you anything.Now, you mentioned that the clog caused water to back up to a vacant unit next door. 

You will need to take any written agreements you have, the title insurance paperwork, the letter from the county, the letter from the city, the work that the previous attorney did and the closing settlement.

American Title & Settlement

there are many many many tenant advocacy groups that look for cases like this where they can make splashy headlines and earn a bunch of cash in a settlement. tenant pays nothing up front and atty gets 50% of the settlement. how do i know? 

Once both parties sign, it’s then off to the title/settlement company.

HiNot sure if this is the right category to post it but I’ll try.A friend of mine is being sued by his tenant because a construction work should be taking place in that complex soon and the tenant claims he wasn’t notified of that prior to signing the lease.He wanted %50 discount for the remaining months of lease (two more) and when my friend offered %15 the tenant refused any sort of settlement including a compensation of $1000 and filed a lawsuit for the amount of $4500.The property is in Colorado, has anyone dealt with this situation before?

To this day I still don't know what happened or why she left so abruptly but all I know is it took my PM a while to find her and get a settlement from her for breaking her lease agreement.

@Robert Kough After thinking about this a little bit and understanding the settlement that you came to with Your renter...

If your not handy and don’t have all the tools, this is not something to attempt unless your adventurous.Also I would try to figure out what’s causing the settlement or bucking to keep it from occurring again.

Instead, both sides agreed to a Settlement.