My hot water pilot was out during the storm and my tenant said he refused to go to work for 2 days because he couldn’t take a shower for 2 days to bathe. His reason is that he did not want to smell around his co workers therefore, he refused to pay rent. What he didn’t know is that I had filed the eviction on him as soon as he missed the rent payment. He is already in court and didn’t know.it He has a history of not paying rent on time and always asking me to work with him. Today’s tenants look for all kind of ways to avoid paying rent. Maybe he ca tell the Judge he didn’t have hot water for 2 days but now he has.

It's a pity he didn't have a unit with a stove, where he could have heated up a pot of water, and scrubbed the important bits with a washcloth... :)

Let's see, what would I do in this situation... Ask a friend or family member to shower at their place. Take the quickie bath with heated water. Go to the gym and use their shower (nope, I don't have a gym membership). Some work places even have showers.

In most states, rent withholding has requirements of notice and reasonable opportunity to repair.

On the other hand, tenant is clearly entitle to rebate on rent because of diminished value of the rented premises, but not 100% of rent.

No rent rebate. I had a tenant text me YESTERDAY asking me why they hadn't had hot water for the past 2 days. I have no clue, you just told me about it.

I was there within 2 hours to fix it, myself.

No credit for the past 2 days for no hot water and no credit for the 2 hours it took me to get there after they contacted me.

You start setting that precedent of rent credit for minor things and they will come to expect it and start looking for reasons to get it.

If that hot water went out on a Saturday night, you're not getting anyone there until Monday in most cases anyway.

Baby wipes work wonders. Learned that trick in the military while out for 6 days on field exercises. Showers? That's funny! ;-)

2 days is pretty good turn around time for a water heater repair. While utility was briefly diminished, if we followed Moshe's logic then we'd be constantly calculating percentages of lost utility any time a repair request is called in and giving tenants discounts. This in turn would lead to more frequent maintenance calls.

I believe the term "reasonable time for repair" was created to allow reasonable people to make reasonable conclusions about what is/is not necessary in a case like this. If it had been a week's time, then yes out of goodwill you would provide some compensation perhaps.

I dunno, maybe Cali law and judges are different, but here in Missouri our judges follow the letter of our laws regarding a tenant withholding rent. I would not be justified in this situation, at all, period.

If your state requires LL to supply things like a working water heater, a working stove and a working furnace, then you must do so. If you do your share of responsibilities, you will prevail in court.

It kills me what tenants will try to get away with and expecting everything in the house to function 100% of the time. In these situations, I take a look at what the problem is specifically. Now, apply this specific problem to my house (that I own and don't get to call a LL to fix). If this happened at my house, what could I reasonably expect for a plumber to come out and get it fixed on their schedule? 2 days? Ok, so no rent rebate for 2 days. If it takes longer, then we can talk about it. If it's fixed in 2 days or less, then no rebate.

@ Deanna(TX) "bet he doesn't go camping."

I had to giggle at that one. I think that when we were traveling out west a number of years back with a popup camper and two kids, we showered maybe every 3 days - washed up with cold water on the other days.

I agree, he probably does not have a job anymore, anyway. What boss would take that for an excuse? "You mean to tell me that you don't know anyone who would let you come over to use their shower?"

My camping supplies include a heavy black plastic water bag, with a hose nozzle. Hang it in the sun for a few hours, and the water inside gets hot. Shower at sunset, before it cools down.

Of course, I can always heat up a pan of water to shave and to scrub the smelly parts. My camping supplies also include a couple of camp stoves, solid fuel and white gas.

Zero rent rebate in this case.

Hahahahha I can’t stop laughing with all your responses and comments. Some are funny, some are insightful and some are downright comical. Wow! Plenty of views and ideas. Truly insightful LLs on top of your game.

lol. I saw the tenant at home today again when I visited the building, perhaps he is out of work. Then again all I worry about is my rent and nothing else.

In an apartment building, all of the larger 2 bedroom units have their water heaters outside on the patio enclosed in a "closet". Some tenants don't keep the closet door latched shut and a gust of wind could blow out the pilot.

One tenant called me at night, 10 PM that he had no hot water and couldn't shower and wasn't going to pay his rent until the hot water is restored. I asked him when he noticed he had hot water. He said in the morning. I told my tenant that I could have come over during the day or had the 87 year old manager re-light the pilot. It only requires moving a knob, pressing down and the pushing an ignition button....

I told the tenant that I'm not going to wake up the manager at 10 PM because they were too lazy to contact me, I only have a pager, cell phone, email, fax and home phone number -- and a manager as well.