My First Tenant EMERGENCY Call

I've been a landlord now for about 2.5 years. During that time, I've never had a tenant call me at "midnight" (or any other time, for that matter) regarding an emergency situation. Sure, I've had calls asking questions and what-not, but never the call where a pipe busted or the roof was leaking or similar REAL emergency type of things. I knew it was only a matter of time, though, before I'd get the call.

About 7pm, my wife noticed my cell phone was ringing, so I answered it and it was the tenant. She said she got home and her neighbor pointed out to her that a drain on the side of the house was leaking hot water. It had literally soaked a large portion of the yard between the two houses. I told her I'd be right over. She mentioned that they were not using hot water, which immediately told me it was probably the water heater.

I arrive and sure enough there is a steady stream of hot water coming out of a small PVC pipe on the side of the house. I run over to the water heater thinking I'd find water in the overflow pan on the bottom of the water heater, but it was bone dry. I looked all around the water heater, but there was no sign of water anywhere. I'm not very literate about water heaters, so I decide to turn the thermostat down to almost the lowest setting and turned the main water valve off, while I called a few plumbers. I also called my wife to see if she could call some plumbers as well.

After calling one plumbing company and having the lady page the plumber on call, I got a call back from him. At about the same time, the tenant said she knew of a plumber by way of some friends at work, so she was talking to him at the same time I was talking to the other plumber. The plumber I was talking to said it sounded like the temperature pressure valve(?) was bad or going bad. He said water heaters are designed so that if things get to a dangerous point (i.e., pressure build-up), the water in the tank is diverted to the drain leading outside, so the thing doesn't explode. Unfortunately, he said he couldn't make it out due to other calls, but that she could leave it turned off and someone would be out in the morning. Hmmmmm.

The plumber the tenant was talking to was more helpful. He actually walked her through steps in order to see if it truly was the valve. While I was in the yard talking to the other plumber, I heard a loud noise like pressured gas being released. After getting off the phone with the plumber, the tenant was doing the last step her plumber was asking her to do. Sure enough, the problem was fixed. The water was no longer leaking from the drain and the water heater was operational (yes, the water was turned on, too). She got off the phone with him, and basically told me the same thing the plumber I was talking to said. She went on to say that it appears when the gas people came to turn on her gas and light the pilot light for the water heater (and furnace), they forgot to release any pressure from the tank as they are supposed to do, so over the course of the last two months, the pressure built to dangerous levels.

The plumber told her to check again in the morning to make sure all was well. I told her to call me first thing in the morning, too, whether it's fixed or still broken. I still haven't received a call from her, so I'm assuming everything is still working.

Whew! I was thinking while I was driving home last night from the house that this was the first time I've had such a call in the ~21 months the place has been occupied by a tenant. In those ~21 months, I have saved myself about $2,400 in PM fees, so even if I had to replace the water heater, I would have still made money by not having a PM company manage my property.

Now, we didn't talk about it, but I'm wondering when the tenant gets her water AND gas bill, if she will call me wanting me to pay for some/all of it. I figure based on the plumber's statement about the gas company, it was probably their fault this happened. Regardless, I seriously doubt it is my problem as I was first notified of the issue last night and took corrective action. We'll see.