My husband and I have been renting a home for 5 yrs now. Just a few weeks ago we've experienced a few issues with the house. After a few days of hard rain..we've experienced a couple of rooms with lighting issues. My husband replaced the bulbs thinking that the bulbs were burnt. It worked for a day and it would flicker and no light after that. We also noticed the garbage disposal doesn't work and the light switch next to that. Ceiling fan in another room wasn't working. And the water pressure has been real low. My husband is thinking there might be an electrical and plumbing issue. Is it our responsibility to find someone to fix or the landlord. My husband has been maintaining the home and we've experienced these issues. What or how would you suggest we handle this situation?
If it isn't clearly spelled out in the lease, even though it should be, I would contact the landlord. Normally that would be the landlord's responsibility.
These are landlord responsibilities. Call your landlord right away - follow up with an e-mail or some other form of written communication. Give him a reasonable time to fix it. If he doesn't, notify him again in writing that you will be getting the problems fixed and will deduct the cost from the rent and will provide the receipt with your rent. You do, however, have to give him reasonable time to fix it first.
This is the Landlords responsibility.
What does your lease say? If the lease states nothing to the contrary, then these should be Landlord expenses, and the Landlord should hire a licensed contractor to come out and fix them.
It should be spelled out in your lease. We have been renting the same home for 5 years also and ours says that we will cover repairs up to $50 and the landlord will repair anything above that (unless its something that is our fault of course). So read your lease. Major repairs *should* be the landlord responsibility. Good luck!
As a landlord, I say refer to your lease & what it states. To me, it should be the landlord's responsibility. We state in our lease that our tenants are repsonsible for minor repairs. We request to be notified of all repairs whether taken care of by the tenant or by us & we step in for big jobs that require bids. Be sure to document the problems, how long they've gone on & what you did to repair. Also, look into your city's rent board to find out how much time your landlord has to respond & then fix said repairs.
Definitely landlord responsibility. He/she will have homeowner's insurance that can help offset the potentially major damage. You shouldn't be spending your own money on this unless there's something explicitly written in the lease.
Good luck. Hope it gets resolved soon.
It is the landlord's responsibility, but if they want you to make the calls and take it off the rent that is a possibility too, but it is not yours to pay for.
