Hello,

The upstairs bathroom in my rental unit clogged. It did not overflow.

Water started to leak through walls downstairs. Our landlord says this was entirely due to the clog.

I believe a clog should cause overflow and not leak through base and downstairs. He said he asked his plumber and the wax seal was fine. I dont buy it.

Question: could a clogged toilet result in water leak from base and downstairs ceiling if everything else is 100% fine? If so then its my fault. If not then i dont think its 100% my fault.

If everything is fine, could a clog ALONE cause leaks in base and ceiling?

i would suspect the wax seal.. but if the plumber pulled the toilet to inspect it and found no sign of a leak then something is very strange.
yeah, it is possible the drain pipe could have a hole or a crack on the top of it and it never leaked until it clogged. but if the pipe is 100% leak free then a clog will not cause it to leak..

How does his plumber know the wax seal is fine? Did he pull the toilet to examine it or did he used an x-ray wax seal checking gun?

Thanks for the replies. He pulled ths toilet but i was not there when he did.



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If not the wax seal there could be a crack in the toilets trap that you cannot easily see, depending on where it is in the internal trap. But I would replace the wax ring if you can't visually see a crack. If it continues to leak after a new wax ring is installed, purchase a new toilet.

He doesn't have a toilet issue (that he is aware of), he is a tenant. His landlord is trying to blame him for a leak to a unit below him, by claiming that the leak was caused by a clog to his toilet that has since been cleared.

The plumbing system is the responsibility of your landlord, if there is a leak due to bad wax ring seal, a crack in the bowl, a crack in the pipes you as a tenant are not responsible. The only time you are responsible is if you put foreign objects down the drain then the landlord may charge you for the service to clear the clog, such as flushing a rubber duck down the toilet or jamming an artichoke heart down a disposer.

What if the tenant causes the toilet to overflow due to too much solid waste/toilet paper in the bowl? I've seen clogs caused by kids where they just kept wiping and wiping, then tried to flush all that paper. And there is the issue of tenants putting what they think are disposable items like wet-wipes or feminine products, even after the landlord has instructed them not to do that.



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That would be a grey area, and is usually handled in a case by case basis, in accordance to the lease terms and state landlord tenant rules.

Some landlords would have provisions in their leases to say the drains are all operational and any blockages after move in would be charged to tenants. However that does not account for pipe collapses and blockages caused by tree root penetration which are clearly landlord responsobility. Other landlords would have an allowance, like two free trips to clear blockages per year, after that it is charged to the tenants.

My leases have a list of prohibitive items for the disposer, and a list of what's allowed down toilet drains.

Do you have a lot of rental properties and does this type of thing (toilet clogging) happen a lot? Seems like dealing with that and the people involved would be a continuous headache. In general, renters are less caring about the home than a homeowner is. (no offense intended to the OP that started this tread)

So you actually tell them not to flush tampons and expect the women and their visiting friends won't do that?



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I have a full time job so I am spread pretty thin most of the time when I need to maintain my properties.

One thing I do is I am not as profit driven in a sense that I value my sanity more LOL. I screen my tenants a lot. I do a full credit check, eviction history, check previous landlord references, sex predator check, criminal records the whole works, and I require first month, last month and security, and I verbally go through the lease page by page with them before signing to make sure they understand each and every point. My lease spells out the landlord's responsibilities and the tenant's responsibilities. By careful and extensive screening you can find better tenants.

The second thing is since I can't be called upon about every little thing that breaks 24/7 it is necessary for me to go through each property with a fine tooth comb before I lease it out. While other landlords would rent a place out and cross their fingers that things won't break, I make sure everything is mechanically sound and functional with my best efforts. For example when I purchase a place I replace every valve & every hose in the house. I open every single electrical junction box on the wall or in the ceiling to check for grounding, loose conductors etc, I remove every light fixture, I remove all the escutcheon to seal the hole behind...I take hundreds of pictures of everything and when I declare a place ready it is ready 100%, and I don't expect any failure. Sure sometimes things happen like a bad capacitor in the AC compressor blows and shuts down the AC or a light bulb goes out, but other than that I don't run into many sudden and drastic issues. That's why sometimes I will leave a place vacant for 2 months while I repair things in small bite size steps. Another thing I do is I visit my rentals once a month. It takes me a full day to visit each place and spend about 30 minutes there. I am there to do "routine maintenance" like change AC filters, flush HWH T&P valve, pour bleach down AC condensate drains, and I take the time to also look under the sinks, turn off and on all the stop valves, run the disposer, and do some minor repairs such as changing out a toilet flapper or clean hair out of a tub drain etc...

I have never had a clogged toilet call (knock wood). I had a couple of episodes of kitchen drain blockages due to @#$%& having no idea how to use the disposer.

My biggest headache is more pet related - tenant leaving the property for two weeks on vacation and left a big pile of cat food in the open for her cat...and end up with German roaches drawn into the house. Or pet chewing off a corner of your kitchen cabinet door...or digging up sprinkler heads. Or in multi-units tenant A complains about tenant B parking in his space two nights ago...that sort of stuff.