Frozen pipes - who's responsible?

[ohiolandlord]

Unable to find or locate any info on responsibility of landlord/tenant in reference to frozen/burst pipes. Living in townhomes in Cuyahoga Falls area. Landlord sais "I am responsible for the pipes" and wants to send me a bill for repairs. Can he legally do this?

Thanks and any info will help.

[ohiolandlord]

If the tenant did anything to cause the problem, then the tenant may be responsible for fixing the frozen pipes. I recently had a landlord come to me with the same problem. The tenant had taped off all the heating vents leading to the basement so no heat would go down there. The pipes froze and the tenant did not want to pay nor did the tenant want to heat the basement in the future. The landlord told him to call a plumber and to deal with the problem himself then. The tenant quickly got the message that he was responsible for heating the basement and the pipes.

Students often turn the heat completely off when they leave for Christmas vacation. This is also a bad idea. The tenant is responsible for taking reasonable care to keep such things from happening.