Hi piggs, seems there are lots of landlords here so I am looking for advice. My tenant told me sprinkler system needs to be fixed. Their gardener looked at it. There are some sprinkler heads need to be added or replaced, a valve needs to be fixed etc. we used a standard CA realtor association rental agreement. So generally it says tenant responsible for landscaping maintenance and watering but we didn’t specify who is responsible for sprinklers. So who is responsible in this case? Thanks!
I can’t say – probably you since it came with the home.
Next time, disable it and let the tenant deal with landscaping. As long as it meets city guidelines, the neighbors are not your neighbors, know what I mean?
I would say you are. How much will their gardener charge for repairs? Doesn’t sound expensive, perhaps ask them to get a quote for repairs and if reasonable have them deduct from next months rent. That is what we do, but we have great tenants that have been there for years and do most stuff themselves…
let’s put it in perspective. if I were the tenant I would find the cheapest repair guy regardless of quality…. better yet, I would stop watering altogether. depending on how much my deposit was, that might make it worth while. you the landlord deal with all the dead landscape after I move out…..might be cheaper than me paying to fix sprinker + taking care of your landscape + spending money watering….
You still think you should leave this repair ( which should be relatively inexpensive) up to the tenant?
put another way. if a pipe inside the house leaks, would you insist he find a plumber and have him pay for it? what if he decides to ignore it, after all, it’s not his house.
Let the landscaping die — no sense using plants that can’t naturally survive in SD’s climate. Replace with xeriscaping. Cheaper and lower maintenance for future tenants.
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