Imagine renting a house when a few huge expenses come up. You have both plumbing problems and broken appliances. What would you do if your landlord refused to pay a repair person to fix the problems but agreed to let fix the problems yourself?

In this story, one renter is in this exact situation. He decides to take the landlord up on his offer, but he keeps track of everything he does and how much time it takes.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Landlord tried to exploit me for free labor.

I am renting a little house out past the suburbs of the city I am currently working in. It is a little old and the appliances are a bit dated, but it was much cheaper than a two bedroom apartment downtown and I move around every couple of years for work.

My landlord lives out of state and doesn’t have anyone local, so for the past year and a half I haven’t talked to anyone. Just pay my rent on time and keep doing my thing.

But then there were a few big problems.

About 4 months ago plumbing issues started popping up and two major appliances decided to give up the ghost.

I notified my landlord via email and written letter (I rent a lot and have learned to abide by the exact wording in a lease).

After several follow up emails and phone calls a local handy man showed up to look at everything and provide a quote.

Uh-oh.

After receiving the quote for parts plus labor the landlord told me flat out that they will not be paying for the repairs. They said that since I am an engineer, they would allow me to purchase parts, install them and then deduct the cost of the repairs from my rent payment.

They said it was either this or “learn to make do”.

I was not super thrilled at this response.

But he responded positively.

I replied back to them saying if they were willing to deduct my time and cost of the parts from my rent that I would get started immediately, thank you very much!

They were thrilled to hear it and asked me to send receipts for their records when everything is finished.

Great! Now to put together all the pieces and get to work.

He documented everything.

The first step was to file for an LLC with my current state.

Next, I set up some cameras and borrowed a GoPro from one of my hiking mates.

I was able to document all the repair process, from me watching YouTube videos of how to do things to me making multiple runs to the part store to get that piece I didn’t know I needed.

The landlord was not expecting this!

Here is the kicker.

At my day job I make over $50 dollars an hour, that is what my time is valued at.

The final bill for everything has worked out to be a about 12% higher than the quoted cost and the landlord is very upset, but my lawyer added to the email chain has kept them very civil.

Wow! That was a clever way of handling the situation!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

No, I don’t think he does.

Good point!

This person thinks he should’ve charged more.

Another person is impressed.

You get what you pay for!

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about some people who were sick and tired of their driveway being crowded, so they parked in their landlord’s driveway instead.