Who's Responsible for Water Damage -Tenants or Landlords

Who's Responsible for Water Damage

A Series of Guest Posts by Amie @ Whole Property Management that will help with this important question...

One of the hardest things about owning a rental property or living in a rented home is avoiding conflicts with the owner of the property or the tenant in the property. Disagreements between tenants in a rental and the owner of the rental are common for a simple reason.

In a rental property, unlike in your own home, ownership of the home does not coincide with the occupancy of the home. The person who owns the property is usually not the person who lives in it. This makes it difficult to assign responsibility for certain problems on the property.

Buildings and their components are bound to wear out and need repairs, but who is responsible for those repairs when that building is a rental property? Is it the tenant, who is only a temporary occupant of the property? Or should it be the owner of the property, even if the landlord doesn’t live on the property? If tenants are responsible for repairs, what about the fact that they pay rent? If landlords should be responsible, what about when tenants misuse the home? This is the challenge when trying to decide who should be responsible for water damage in a rental home. Water damage is a problem that is almost inevitable in a home and the cost of fixing it is often high. Should landlords or tenants be responsible for water damage? Part 2 will dive into "Landlord’s Responsibility for Water Damage in a Rental"