The drain outside our kitchen was blocked, it looked to us to be from leaves as it is not well protected from the elements. The pipe from the kitchen itself was clear, but the large hole it then drains into was blocked. We spent hours trying to unblock it ourselves and then called the LL who came 2 days later with a plumber. Plumber says it was blocked with food debris and fat. She has sent us photos, that don’t seem to show any food debris or fat, as evidence. We use a strainer in the sink and do not put any fat down the sink. We are nearly 50 years old and have never blocked a sink anywhere we’ve ever lived and I am clear we haven’t done anything out of the ordinary to cause a blocked sink. She has sent us an invoice for £165 for the plumber to clear the drain and replace the piping. Is this reasonable? I don’t feel like it is (at the very least if we were expected to pay we should be able to get a better quote) but don’t know how we contest it when she has ‘evidence’ from her plumber that it’s our fault. She is a first time LL, this has been her first expense of having tenants.
How long have you been there? Could have been accumulating for years with previous tenants.
What does your tenancy agreement say about drains and whose responsibility they are?
If you’ve been there for ages and the ast is vague on whose responsibility it is, you could offer to meet her halfway. After all, if she considered you responsible, she gave you no notice nor choice of plumber to enable to you minimise costs. I think that could be used to negotiate in this situation.
Very difficult for LL to prove that even though the blockage may have been caused by food and fat that it is in fact food/fat that you have put down the drain as opposed to previous residents. A decent landlord would give you the benefit of the doubt this time round but not next.
I once had a drainage guy show me a chicken bone he had supposedly pulled from the drain, but we’re both vegetarians and I saw him take it from his pocket.
I used to rent a house to a family with a maid. The drain kept blocking, every time we got it cleaned chicken bones came out. Turned out they didn’t feed maid enough, she stole food from fridge and flushed down drain as they checked bins….
That is such a tragic story
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