Thanks to this thread, I learned from you JC and made sure over the weekend to jump on a plumbing issue shared between my condo and the owner above me.
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Me: Hey dude, my tenant told me the kitchen drain is plugged, and thinks the drain empties to a common drain pipe shared between our unit and he thinks he saw your tenant moving out and emptying shit down the sink. I had to dispatch my plumber.
Owner Upstairs: (no response for a few hours)
Me: Hey dude again, my plumber says that the drain was clogged when he took part of the drain hose off that runs from your condo upstairs to mine below. He ended up needing to snake the drain 15 feet below and after a few hours was able to get it cleared. This is the 4th plumbing issue, could we split the bill. The bill is $135
Owner Upstairs: oh, thanks but no, it’s not my tenants fault.
Me: Well it’s a common drain, my tenant says they were moving out as you were preparing the condo for sale. I was being nice and offered to split the bill with you. It was $135 total, so your portion would be $67.50
Owner Upstairs: I don’t think it’s my tenants fault, so no.
Me: Well, ok that’s fine. If you would rather me take it up with your prospective buyer while they are in escrow, that’s fine. I don’t mind asking the would be new buyer if they plan on paying for the unsettled plumbing bill. By the way, this is the 4th plumbing issue I had with your unit in 2 years. I guess since we are talking about plumbing issues, you have plans to disclose of these issues to your new buyer, right? I don’t want to approach your buyer and be the messenger of all the plumbing issues you’ve had with your unit. The last thing I would hate would be what I need to say to your new buyer would potentially delay escrow or cause a transaction to fall out of escrow, as I’m sure I will check with your listing agent if all the plumbing issues that I’m aware of has been properly disclosed and ensure all potential buyers that I or my tenant ends up talking to were aware of the major 4 plumbing incidents that happened over the past 2 years.
(Considering this guy has a history of trying to get out of paying for water damage his unit does to mine and trying to doing the cheapest thing, I’m pretty sure he’s not going to disclose of the previous 3 plumbing issues that caused water damage to my unit)….
Owner Upstair: wow FLU, you would fuck up escrow over $67.50? Send me your plumber’s info so I can confirm
(Sent this morning at 545am since he’s over in Texas a remote owner)
Me: No, it’s not my intention to fuck up escrow over $67.50. But considering you are trying to sell the condo for $300k+, I thought you were being penny wise, pound foolish for giving me a hard time over something that was $135 split by 2…especially considering the history of plumbing issues we’ve had from the 2nd floor…again…Check your text again. I tried to reason with you about splitting the bill. You said no, it wasn’t your problem, you don’t give a shit. I think if you were in my situation, you would have asked your property manager what to do, and your property manager would have said told you to do the same thing. Go after the amount from the new prospective buyer. And if it “fucks up” escrow, it’s not your problem, the same way that when a common drain issue occurs, how he thinks its “not his problem”
I dont know, I were in your situation, when the irate owner of the unit below you is contacting you out of the blue for yet another plumbing issue (the 4th one) and hasn’t contacted you for a long time for anything other than a real issue, I probably would have said “oh, a common plumbing issue… ok, would you mind sending me your plumber so I can confirm, and if this is really a shared drain line, yes I would be happy to split the cost of the work your plumber did to clear both our drains…because I wouldn’t want the drain to be plugged impacting your current tenant that is still living there and my potential new buyer while they are doing a home inspection since it’s the same common drain…. And since it’s $135, half of that isn’t a big deal…”… But this is the 4th plumbing issue. And once again, rather that trying to hear what I was trying to rationalizing explain to you, you basically blew me off again and said, “not my problem”..So I was prepared to get my property manager to reach out to your listing agent to ensure that the message got through to you, and to ensure you were properly disclosing a 4 major plumbing issues you’ve had in the past that affected my unit and caused some damage and that there was an unsettled plumbing bill outstanding.
Owner Upstairs: I think you had a misunderstanding of what I said.
Me: If it’s a misunderstanding, you have nothing to worry about then… I’ll send you a scan bill after it’s 8am here. My plumber isn’t up yet anyway since it’s 541am here still.
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As the saying goes. For some people, you give them an inch, they’ll try to take a mile. I don’t even give people an inch, when they have a history of being an unreasonable cheap ass. It’s not the $67.50 that really matters, it’s the principle and history of dealing with this guy. He and his insurance didn’t want to pay for a $7000 water claim. I ended up trying to sue him and his insurance for $25k for loss of wages loss of earnings, trip charges etc. We settled for $15k from his insurance. You would think after that, and a two other plumbing issues he tried to get out of also, that on the 4th one that happened right now during escrow, he would just say how much and what happened and cut the check no questions asked… Go figure.
Thank you JC for sharing your unfortunate experience. I learned a lot from reading this thread, and I’ve learned to be a big asshole if there’s an issue over a shared plumbing, especially if the other party(ies) consistently try to ignore the shared responsibility portion.
