THE DRAIN FOR THE BATHTUB HAD A REALLY BAD CLOG. I TRIED THREE DIFFERANT TYPES OF LIQUID PLUMMER WITH NO SUCESS. I HAD USED A SNAKE BUT IT WOULDN'T GO ANY FURTHER THAN THE TRAP. I TRIED TO OPEN THE TRAP BUT THE BRASS PLUG WOULDN'T LOOSEN. RUNNING OUT OF OPTIONS, AND UNWILLING FOR EITHER OF US TO HELP SUPPORT A PLUMMER, I CUT THE STEEL PIPES IN TWO SPOTS. I THEN TOOK IT ALL APART AND FOUND THE CLOG IN A 90° NEAR THE MAIN DRAIN PIPE. I BOUGHT MATCHING PVC PIPING AND GLUE & REASSEMBLED THE DRAIN. NO LEAKS AND IT LOOKS PROFESSIONAL. SORRY I DIDN'T CALL BUT THE DRAIN BECAME MORE OF A VENDETTA THAN ANYTHING. I DEDUCTED $40.00 FROM THIS MONTH'S RENT. I'M SURE YOU'LL FIND THIS FAIR.
The key quotes here are: "unwilling for either of us to help support a plummer" and "the drain became more of a vendetta than anything". Oh boy, have I been there before! Hilarious! Yeah, sometimes I love my renters.
Right now all the units are filled with bachelors. They like their privacy and will try their hardest to fix things so that we don't have to come out. This can be a problem when people THINK they know what they are doing but really don't. But all of these guys have had experience in home improvement before, so I don't worry...too much anyway.
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Maria said... That's ballsy of him to deduct money from the rent. If something is broken in my place, I make zero attempt to fix it. That's why I like to rent; so I don't have to fix stuff.
- evilsciencechick said...
Kev was renting when he and I started dating. He lived in one half of a house that had been divided to rent out - the smaller, crappier half. One day I was out in the back yard with Sadie, and noticed that the ground was very wet. very very very wet. Which was weird, considering it hadn't rained in a few days.
I found water bubbling out of a hole in the ground. apparently, a water pipe had burst. It had soaked the whole yard, and had made it to the foundation of the house. yikes! Instead of calling someone out to come fix it, which would have probably meant thousands and a torn up backyard, Kev dug around the broken pipe, bought a connector, cut the pipe around the leak, and replace the bad bit.
HE IS SUCH A HANDY MAN!
Of course, he deducted cost and effort from the rent. at the time, the older lady who rented out the house (she lived in florida) was happy with it. He made lots of repairs to that crappy house.
When he was in the process of moving out, the old lady and a friend came to look over the place and clean out some of her stuff still in the basement. She started bitching about what she considered sloppy jobs - the bare spot in the yard from the leak that hadn't grown back, a concrete patch in the basement that didn't "match" with the floor.
OH DID KEV GO OFF ON HER!
what a bitch. He saved her thousands of dollars. We were SO happy to get him out of there!
So cool renters are fun...but it's hard to find a cool rentee is REALLY hard!- Mohammad said...
Hmmm, I'm not sure it is cool to do a repair yourself then deduct the money without contacting the landlord/lady first. If my renter ever did it, I'd still charge them the full price. It only takes once to teach someone a lesson...
Of course everything in life is based on the situation at hand.- Indigo Red said...
I usually do the repairs or upgrades in my apartment.
The dining room fan would only work if the light was on also. I checked it out and found it had been miswired. So, I rewired it and now I have the only fan/light that works right in the whole complex.
The bathroome lights would burn out after about a month. The fixture was the wrong wattage for the line. I installed the correct wattage. It's better and cheaper than the one that was there.
I also have replaced the bathroom and kitchen faucets because they leaked. Six years now and no leaks.- Sylvana said...
Maria, I would most certainly go out and fix these things myself, but they would rather not get me involved.
ESC, if she was OK with him doing the repairs at the time, then she has no right to complain at the walk-out.
Mohammad, normally I send them something reminding them that they must contact me first, but I trust this guy right now, and it wasn't that much (plus he's been good about making room for an extra fridge that we needed to store).
Indigo Red, I quite often did minor improvements when I rented too- fixing window mechanics, lighting fixtures, toilets, ect. I'd rather do it myself than deal with the bureaucracy.- OldRoses said...
I own and I'm not handy. Right now, I have a door that fell off of a kitchen cabinet and a drawer sitting on my kitchen table because the bottom slide thingy came out of its holder thingy on the back of the cabinet and I don't know how to get it back in. And I can't just screw the hinge back on for the door cuz the holes are worn out. I tried glue, but that didn't hold either.
Maybe I should rent so the landlord could fix stuff for me.- DrMax said...
Two words Roses: duct tape.
- Sylvana said...
OldRoses, you could always hire a handyman;)
DrMax, brilliant!- Sask 1 said...
At least he didnt use a live snake to eat through the clog.
June- Sylvana said...
Yeah, June, it could give the snake indigestion.
- Randi said...
my landlord sent a guy over to fix my shower when it stopped working and he had me pay for the part....then when i shorted my portion of rent because i had to pay for it, my boyfriend forgot to short the rent check...thank god it was only 10 bux....
- Furlong said...
My landlord was Satan. He was a pretty nice fellow, but nonetheless he was the anti-Christ.
He let part of the roof collapse. It collapsed and there was a giant hole in my entry way. He came over and look at it and said, "We'll just patch that up, me and you, I'll come over this weekend." 11 months went by and I moved out. Still there was the hole in the ceiling. This hole became known as the infamous B-Hole (see blog for details).
Because of the actions of one landlord, I won't hold it against other landlords. Maybe.- Sylvana said...
Randi, was paying for repairs in your lease? I never would have paid the repair guy. I would have told him to go talk to the landlord.
Furlong, now that's bad. Was his name Glen?- Derek Knight said...
usually, when I have a vendetta against a drain, I just stuff it with hair.
- Sylvana said...
Derek, interesting tactic.
- Daniel Heath said...
HE CUT THE STEEL PIPE AND REPLACED IT WITH PVC WITHOUT TELLING YOU?!?
Nothing like unilateral, radical changes to the unit's plumbing to really warm a landlord's heart... I mean, I'm always grateful when my tenant keeps problems in perspective, but I'm also glad she doesn't take the power tools to the unit before letting me know something is amiss.
Many of my users are like that, here at the non-profit I support as a network admin. "Oh, yeah, that wasn't working so I X" where X is some insane radical thing that leaves their computer a smoking cinder. I mean, thank you for not calling me, but...- Sylvana said...
So, Monkey 0, are you trying to say that I should be more concerned?
My sister is a programmer for a very large company and they do the same thing to her. Right before she goes on vacation she will instruct everyone NOT to do X or they will be completely screwed. Five hours after leaving she will get a call on her cell. Uh, remember that thing, X, that you told us not to do? Uh, well, we did it anyway and now we are completely screwed. Heh-heh...
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