Landlord Question and Answer Forum

We're renting a room in our home. We found out this week that the sewer line is broken, which means we can't use the toilet properly (we have 1 bathroom). It make several days to get it fixed; meanwhile, what can we do for our tenant? We can't afford to put him up in a hotel, though we may be able to reimburse him later if he chooses to do so. He says he's fine with working around the situation (i.e., mainly using the bathroom @ work, etc.) but that might not be acceptable for too long. I was also thinking about prorating the days the bathroom wasn't usable and taking that amount off his next month's rent.

I would like to put some further clarification on this: we worked it out so we can use the shower and use the toilet at least for non-solids. Again, the tenant said to not worry about it. He spends most of his time at work or visiting friends. After discussing with my husband I think the best thing to do will be credit the tenant rent on a prorated basis for the days it was not fully functional.

Posted by Judy G, WA on Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Judy, that is a great idea. You have a very flexible tenant, which is a wonderful thing.

Posted by Jessica B, MD on Friday, May 11, 2012