If the lease says the tenants pay if it's their fault then I'd pay for a company to come out and snake it to the main with a camera and get a statement as to fault and if it's not their fault then they can escrow rent in the amount of the plumbing costs and fight it out in court.

She had to have the tenant evicted and that took years to do because the tenant played the court system and the court system allowed it to happen.

You can tell the tenant to kick rocks, cause you are out real costs because of him, but if he goes to court I think you will lose.

Technically it's a default on the terms of the mortgage (assigning the deed over to another entity) so if the bank finds out they can declare a default and call your note due.My experience...don't tick off your banker.

What if you make up the number and it goes to court?

See if you can have a tri-fold pamphlet made to put at the local court office where evictions are handled. 

And you won't get one without a court order.If I do make $40-$50 million doing what I do, rest assured I will have a training course and a shelf of books for sale and a traveling guru seminar and I will most certainly mightily and righteously insist in all of them that my success was all thanks to pulling myself up by my own bootstraps through taking the right risks, a good attitude, leveraging competitive advantages, AND OF COURSE HARD WORK.Because hard work will set you free, or as it was once put in German, "Arbeit macht frei."

Force them to jump through the hoops and force them to declare themselves disabled, and to get a doctor to vouch for it. 

Totally undefensible in court. 

Though I limit that last part to no more than two months because I think that's reasonable and, if it were to appear in front of a court, that's probably all they would allow also.