Plumbing between tenants: what landlords should check

Howzit landlord, agent or trustee. Got a plumbing fault in one of Cape Town's older blocks? Here's how to settle it calmly. Work out where it sits. Work out who owns it. Then keep it tidy on paper.

Interview by Tomek Korzeniewski · with Chantal Adams, Office, bookings and insurance claims

Why one burst geyser can flood three flats at once

One burst geyser in a block of flats doesn't stay in one flat. Water runs down through the ceiling into the unit below and sometimes the one under that.

She handles the bookings, quotes, invoices and all the paperwork that comes with every job. A big part of her week is landlords, rental agents and body corporate trustees, so she has seen what works and what goes badly wrong.

Her point is simple. One fault, three owners. Maybe two tenants, a managing agent and a single building insurance policy. If nobody knows whose geyser it is, the job stalls while everyone phones everyone. Meanwhile the water keeps running.

So the first question is never who pays. It's whose geyser is this.

Who owns the geyser in a sectional title scheme

So who owns the geyser? In most schemes the geyser that serves one unit belongs to that unit. The owner is responsible for it, even when it sits up in a shared roof.

Adams says it depends on the building's rules and where the geyser sits. That's the first thing she asks when a trustee phones. Some schemes write their own rules that change the usual answer. She always asks trustees to check their conduct rules and the insurance policy before anyone argues about money.

The unit's own fittings are one thing. The building is another. Pipes in the common walls or the main supply line are often the body corporate's problem.

Where a body corporate's job ends and an owner's begins

The geyser inside your unit is usually yours. The pipes in the common walls and the main supply line are usually the body corporate's job.

That's the line most arguments fall across. Blocks in Kalk Bay and Simon's Town often have old clay drains shared by several units. One blockage. Suddenly the ground-floor flat gets everyone else's water and sorting that out is the body corporate's problem.

She suggests a camera inspection every couple of years on the main lines, so trustees see problems coming. It also settles arguments about whose pipe is whose, because you can show them on the screen. This is where a plumber like Lwazi comes in.

Lines on paper are easy. The hard part comes the night water starts coming through the ceiling.

What to do the moment water comes through the ceiling

So here is what to do while it is still dark and dripping.

1. Switch off the geyser at the distribution board. This stops it heating a tank that may be emptying through your ceiling.
2. Close the stopcock if you can find it. That cuts the water at the source.
3. Call the landlord or the agent. Give them the chance to send help first.
4. If you can't reach anyone and water is still coming through, call a plumber. Adams says most leases allow for that in a real emergency.

The landlord should make this easy. Adams suggests a sticker inside the meter box door with the stopcock location, the agent's number and a plumber's number. Her firm gives landlords those stickers free, with a WhatsApp number on them.

Why landlords and tenants argue over a dripping tap

Most landlord and tenant arguments come down to delays and blame. A tenant reports a dripping tap. Nobody does anything about it for three months.

The drip becomes a leak under the cabinet. The chipboard swells, so now it's a new kitchen cupboard instead of a washer. Or a tenant blocks the toilet with wipes and then the landlord gets the bill with no record of what caused it.

The real trouble isn't the drip. It's that nobody has proof of what actually happened during the plumbing between tenants. So the whole argument becomes one person's word against another's.

How a written finding with photos settles who caused what

A written finding with photos ends that guessing. It shows the cause, not just the damage. If the blockage was wipes, the report says wipes. If an old pipe collapsed, the report says that.

Adams says her plumbers write down what they find and photograph it. Then the landlord and the tenant can sort it out fairly, instead of guessing. When a tenant calls her firm directly in a real emergency, she asks for the owner's details straight away. They make it safe and stop there. She sends the owner photos and a short note: here's what we found, here's what we did, here's what needs doing next.

The same honest record matters later. If you can show it was serviced last year and the pressure valve was changed, the claim goes more smoothly.

Recording a fault properly is easier when it's planned, not just done after a flood.

Why some body corporates now check every geyser once a year

Good body corporates plan ahead. One building in Muizenberg asked Adams's firm to check every geyser in the block once a year.

They go on a set week, one unit after another. They test the valves, check the drip trays and note the age of each geyser. Then Adams sends the trustees a simple list sorted by risk. Geysers over ten years old or showing rust go to the top. Owners get a heads-up that theirs is due.

That building has had far fewer burst geysers since. It keeps the building calm and tidy instead of lurching from one emergency to the next.

The same planning works at the smaller scale of a single rental, between one tenant and the next.

What a landlord should have on file before the next tenant moves in

Good records make that handover simple. Before the next tenant moves in, a landlord should have one file per property. Unit number, geyser age, last service, every job, every invoice and every photo.

Adams keeps exactly this for landlords with three or four rentals across Fish Hoek, Lakeside and Plumstead. When a tenant moves out, the landlord can ask for a quick check before the next one moves in. A new tenant with a cold shower on the first morning is not a happy tenant.

For new trustees handed all this, her advice is plain. Don't try to know everything. Find out where the stopcocks are. Find out who can approve an emergency. Pick a plumber you can reach. Then start a simple record.

Getting that file in order is ordinary plumbing work, the kind that keeps the plumbing between tenants calm and tidy. A Klipspringer plumber, a registered plumber who signs off on your job, is exactly who you'd ask to do it. For wider background, see Private renting: Repairs (GOV.UK GOV.UK).

Ready when you are

If you would like to take this further, Plumber is the place to start.

About the expert

Chantal Adams, Office, bookings and insurance claims.

Frequently asked questions

What are the warning signs a landlord or agent should watch for with a tenant's plumbing habits?

Watch for slow drains, a toilet that needs flushing twice, damp patches near skirting boards or a water bill that's crept up for no reason. Any of those on their own might be nothing, but together they usually mean a small fault that's been left too long.

Are there South African rules that set out plumbing standards, or is it mostly left to the lease?

South Africa has national technical standards that cover how pipes, geysers and drains should be installed, separate from whatever the lease says. The lease then decides who pays for upkeep between landlord and tenant, but it can't override the technical standard itself.

Is a blocked drain down to the tenant or the landlord to sort out?

It depends on where the blockage sits and what caused it. A blockage inside the unit from something flushed down the toilet usually falls on the tenant, while a blockage in a shared or main line is more often the landlord's or body corporate's job to fix.

Will a plumber rush the job because they're already thinking about the next one, leaving new problems behind?

A proper job isn't finished until the cause is fixed and written down, not just the symptom. If a plumber leaves without explaining what was wrong and what was done, that's worth asking about before they're off your property.

Will you be overcharged for something small, like a dripping tap or a running toilet?

What drives the price on a small job is usually the part needed, like a washer or a valve and how long the fault takes to reach, not the size of the drip itself. The only way to get a real number is to have someone look at it or send through a photo first, so ask for that before any work starts.

Will the plumber actually turn up when they say, or will you be left waiting?

There's no way to promise that for every plumber everywhere, so it's fair to ask directly how they handle timing before you book. A plumber who's upfront about arrival windows and keeps you posted by message is usually more reliable than one who just says 'sometime today'.

Could you end up with a big invoice for work that doesn't even fix the problem?

That happens most often when the first job only treats the symptom and not the cause, like clearing a blockage without checking why it formed. Ask for a written explanation of the cause alongside the fix, so you're not paying twice for the same problem.

Can a plumber decide whether the landlord or the tenant is at fault?

A plumber can find and record what caused the fault, but deciding who's liable for the bill is between the landlord and tenant or whoever manages the lease. A clear written finding with photos just gives both sides something factual to work from instead of guessing.

If you need paperwork for an insurance claim, is that something a plumber can help with?

A plumber can give you a written record of what was found and what was done, which is usually what an insurer asks for. Whether that's enough for your specific claim depends on your policy, so it's worth checking with the insurer what they need before the job starts.

What happens if you call and just get put on hold or never hear back?

That's worth noticing early, because how a company answers the phone on a normal day tells you how they'll handle an actual emergency. If a call goes unanswered more than once, it's reasonable to try someone else rather than wait around with water on the floor.

Do bigger plumbing companies actually call you back when something goes wrong?

That varies a lot and has more to do with how a company is run than its size. A smaller outfit with one phone and a tidy system can call back faster than a big one with several hands on the line, so ask how they handle follow-up rather than assuming size settles it.

What if the plumber who turns up doesn't have the right tools or knowledge for the job?

A registered plumber has had to meet a set standard to get that registration, which is one way to check someone's basic competence before they start. Beyond that, asking what equipment they're bringing for a specific fault, like a camera for a hidden drain, is a fair question before they arrive.

About the author

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