I’m a new park owner. one of my renters had a plumber out due to clogged sewer pipe. . I heard it was both a greasey hairball then they thought it may be a tree root entered the pipe. Most likely a combination of the two. My question is, do i pay or the renter? Its not too expensive, but i want to be consistant. Renter thinks i should pay for it. My manager says it looks more like roots, but not sure. Any advice?
If it’s a clean water issue, I tend to say this side of the shut off is mine and that side is yours. HOWEVER when it comes to sewer that’s another story. I always want them to call right there and then no questions asked. I figure or worry that if they have an issue and let money question their judgement, or they hold off with “i’ll call when it get’s worse” then the risk of the issue backing up into other trailes keeps me up at night.
I’d chalk it up to experience with the understanding that sewer issues only come up once in a blue moon
The park should pay for it. There’s no way you can prove the cause, and certainly not in a manner that could be legitimately tied back to the tenant. If you went to court over it, you would lose in two seconds.
My policy is, for both water and sewer, if above ground it’s tenants responsibility if below ground my responsibility. The only possible exception would be damage caused by tenant through digging or other similar irresponsible physical actions.
In the case of a obvious misuse resulting in damage/blockage to buried services, assuming the actual cause is attributed directly to a individual tenant, any repeat would be billed to the tenant.
After paying for it, you could mail a letter threatening to raise rents to keep up with all the Roto-Rooter expenses if people keep dumping bacon grease down the drain. It might reduce the number of clog incidents. Will it work? Probably not… Worth a try though. Just another cost of doing business… Good luck!