Landlord Question and Answer Forum

My new tenants moved in yesterday and immedialty brought in their gas dryer to try and install. As soon as they turned on and hooked up their dryer (attempted to use a new hose, their hose that came with their dryer and the one we provided with the home), there was a gas leak. We instructed for them to turn it off and immediatly called a plumber to fix it first thing today. Our prior tenants unfortunatly caused quite a bit of damage in the home when they left. Our home is pretty new and we have never had any major reapir issues till these last tenants vacated. What makes me believe they most likely could have caused the gas leak when "ripping out" their dryer, is because we were also forced to charge them to repair and fix almost ALL the light plates and 3 dimmer switches in the home due to excessive force on them. We also made them pay for repairs to fix all the electrical running to all our front porch and garage lights because they were ripping on the wires when trying to fix a switch. Again the home is pratically new. When the plumber fixed and concluded his visit, he said there was no way that he could place blame in regards to what he found but there was a couple broken gaskets where the threading had been broken and one obviously stripped; he did say it very well could have been from someone not being careful and jostling everything. Can I post-charge my prior tenants for this and send them a bill? Because we don't offer the laundry appliences to come with the home, there were no units in there to test the lines after they left. The gas was also not on after they left. Any thoughts or ideas? Am I going to have to eat this one too?

For further clarification... I reside in VA but my rental home is in CA and my father who lives locally helps manage it.

Posted by Jodi & Mike R, VA on Wednesday, October 1, 2014