I have a rental property that sustained water damage from a leak in the unit above. Under the standard texas lease agreement does the tenant still owe me rent if he is displaced from the home while repairs are made?

Who owns the unit above that caused the damage? You or someone else?

The "legal" answer and the "reasonable" answer to your question may not be the same.

It's been a few years and I do not recall the specific statutes, but I had a tenant flood my rent house. Yes, he was legally required to pay rent while repairs were ongoing. Unless the property was deemed uninhabitable. The idiot stayed in the house, but deemed it uninhabitable so he didn't pay rent. Yes, lawyers got involved at that point.

Who ultimately caused the flood? Is the property unlivable?

Tenant has to pay rent if he wants to keep the lease, but the lease may also be considered void if the property is considered unlivable and it was through no fault of the tenant.

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/StatutesByDate.aspx?code=PR&level=SE&value=92.054&date=6/28/2014

I do not own the unit above that the water leak came from.
There is dehumidifying equipment running 24/7 at the moment and it's loud so it's not reasonable to stay there. The repairs will take 2 weeks and they will have to tear down the majority of the ceiling and wall Sheetrock so it won't be ideal to be in there during that time.
I felt a reasonable offer would be to prorate his rent for the month based on however many days he is staying elsewhere.
Is there any chance the other owners insurance would reimburse me for lost rental income?

Insurance industry here. The worst they can say is no and you get nothing if you don't try.

Who is paying for the tenant's accommodations? Do you have rental income insurance for disasters like this?

Legally you don't have to prorate without a court order, so I could see the insurance company telling you to pound sand without that, especially if they are also paying for the tenant to stay in a hotel. But it also comes down to asking at the end of the day too as previously said.

The tenant should have coverage on their renters policy for "loss of use" giving them coverage to get a hotel or short term rental during this process.

The landlord also has this coverage in place on their landlord policy, this would come into play in the event the tenant does not continue to pay rent if they are displaced, reimbursing then landlord for loss of rental income.

So either way you should be good.

histag10 said:

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jagvocate said:

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You want rent for uninhabitable unit? Chutzpah!

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Seems reasonable if he is paying for tenant's current displaced housing.

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Are they?

TMoney2007 said:

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histag10 said:

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jagvocate said:

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You want rent for uninhabitable unit? Chutzpah!

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Seems reasonable if he is paying for tenant's current displaced housing.

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Are they?

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Yeah, that (paying for renter's short term property during repairs) wasn't clearly laid out, was it? May or may not be doing that, and it's the KEY factor IMHO

Quote:

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Yeah, that (paying for renter's short term property during repairs) wasn't clearly laid out, was it? May or may not be doing that, and it's the KEY factor IMHO

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Agree.

If their short term housing is covered it would fair for rent to be paid.

Bumping this for similar scenario....

What about partial loss of use? For instance, 2 of 4 bedrooms and 1 of 2 bathrooms out of use. No fault of tenant but a slow process to repair.

SoTheySay said:

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Bumping this for similar scenario....

What about partial loss of use? For instance, 2 of 4 bedrooms and 1 of 2 bathrooms out of use. No fault of tenant but a slow process to repair.

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1/2 rent? I don't think full rent is fair.

SoTheySay said:

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Bumping this for similar scenario....

What about partial loss of use? For instance, 2 of 4 bedrooms and 1 of 2 bathrooms out of use. No fault of tenant but a slow process to repair.

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Did they have occupants in all 4 bedrooms? Is this a single family, or roomate situation? Are there young kids? Does working bathroom have a shower and tub?

Agree that asking for full rent is a bad look

A couple, no kids. Available bathroom is equivalent, if not bigger, than the one out of commission. We are talking $25k in restoration/repair.

SoTheySay said:

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A couple, no kids. Available bathroom is equivalent, if not bigger, than the one out of commission. We are talking $25k in restoration/repair.

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I don't know what exactly I would do. I'd definitely offer them something off.

Maybe half, maybe less than half off. It's half of the bedrooms and bathrooms, but not half of the livable space when you take the kitchen and living room into account. On the other hand, they're also somewhat inconvenienced by having construction people around. Also, if they're staying through it rather than trying to get out of their lease (which I would probably let them do, even if I wasn't required to), that's worth something to you.

If they're good renters that you want to keep and its 3 months or something like that, I would probably just give them half off. If you're less concerned about that, maybe 30% off? Whatever you decided, I would get it in writing.

SoTheySay said:

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Bumping this for similar scenario....

What about partial loss of use? For instance, 2 of 4 bedrooms and 1 of 2 bathrooms out of use. No fault of tenant but a slow process to repair.

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Same thing should still apply if their lease is for the full property- if they want to keep the lease, they keep paying rent. If they want to break the lease, you have to let them. I'm not sure what happens if they rent just a room, but the construction would likely affect their quality of life enough that a judge would let them break the lease if it went to court.

I think it depends more on how much you value their tenancy and what you can work out with them.

I do value them but also have tried to be a decent landlord from the beginning. We kept their rental rate the same at the beginning of COVID scares and only raised it like 6% the next year.

Unfortunately it was one small thing that caused a lot of damage followed by a restoration company that just sucked but we have someone who seems to have turned it around quite nicely.

But we are dealing with completely gutting and restoring a bathroom and two bedrooms with hardwood flooring… hasn't been an easy task.

Also feel a bit like my hands are tied as, at the moment, we are paying for most of this out of pocket while we wait on insurance.

If you don't work with them can you afford not having any rental income while the renovations occur if they decided to leave?

Technically, yes, as I would market about 10% higher rent rate.

I considered offering to not increase their rent if they renewed again but I think that would leave me out maybe $2400 over the year. I may offer 30% off the next two months.

This issue started in October. Hopefully we are done soon.

I don't anticipate that they will renew after this, though. But given current rents I'm seeing, as much as I don't want to deal with finding new tenants, it may not be a bad thing financially.

What happened to cause the damage?

Faulty valve under sink

Dang. That sucks.

Ye$ it doe$