our renters are currently two months behind on their rent.
their reason?
there are plumbing problems over at the house that we have tried fixing (drain-o, sewer snaking, we will be pulling apart the plumbing in the next couple of weeks to see what the heck is going on), but they have rented a steam truck, at $1500 to come (without telling us about it).
now they are saying that they want to be reinbusred for the cost of the truck, that we had no idea was even coming over.

they also say they are not paying rent because of the problems (the last thing i heard from them that they had used the sewer snake after we had left, and that everything was working fine).

we are now two mortgage payments behind because they wont pay rent, and we cant afford to go to a lawyer and talk with him.
no, there are no free lawyers here, the closest are in the city.

any advice? suggestions?

Laws differ from state to state. Here in Massachusetts, they would be able to withhold their rent until you fix the problem, or if you have not corrected the problem, they can have a plumber come and fix the problem and deduct that amount from the rent that they owe you.

They would need to show that they put that money aside (into an account for you) to pay you once the problem was fixed.

How long has it been that there have been plumbing problems and what kind of problems are you dealing with? (it's one thing to have a drip in the sink and another to have water leaking into a room causing damage or causing them to live with the water in the house). The type of problems will have alot to do with whether or not you need to pay.

They absolutely have to pay!

According to the Residential Tenancies Act for Alberta-

the tenant may apply to court:
• to recover damages
• to have the rent reduced to make up for any
benefits the tenant has lost because the
landlord didn’t carry out the landlord's
obligations
• to compensate for the cost of performing the
landlord's obligations
• to end the tenancy.


Note that a tenant cannot withhold rent when a tenant believes that a landlord is not carrying
out a landlord's obligations.

Whew! I've tried to post 3 times now and every time I enter in the url for the above law I lose my internet connection.

Alberta Government Landlord Act

thanks for the info!

the problem is the main drain leading from the house isnt working all that great, and the basement has flooded a couple of times, with about 1/2 inch of water over a 5 foot area.
the only stuff in the basement is our stuff (paint, tools, stuff like that).

as far as we knew, from their own mouths, the problem happened twice, and was fixed completly the second time with the sewer snake.

funny thing is, they didnt have any money to give us for rent, but they had money to buy alcohol and go camping this weekend.

oh, and on a kinda funny note, when we sewer snaked it, guess what came out?
fish rocks!
those little decorative rocks for fish tanks.

who knows how long they were down there!

and i just found out that mom has access to a sewer thingy with a camera on it, so we are going to use that to find out if its just a big clog, or if some of the pipes have broke.

Well that should be interesting to use! So how are you going to pursue this back rent issue? These were the "friends" you told me about months ago...when I mentioned the "dangers" of becoming a landlord...aren't they? Imagine what had happened if you had rented to strangers!

no, the friends we had lined up ended up with a better place, one that they liked more, and these are merely aquaintences.

it looks like we should be able to get our insurance to cover anything, and we now have a deal in place for the back rent, so hopefully things will all be better.

Glad to hear that! The part about insurance coverage and working out a deal on the back rent that is I hope that the problem can be corrected and that you have no more difficulties.