Landlord Charging for Ineffective Plumbing Repairs

[calliecat]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Washington DC

The toilet in my house was clogged, so we let the landlord know. After five attempts to unclog the toilet, tweezers and a toothbrush were found in the trap. (We have no clue where these came from as no one is missing either of these items, but probably we have no way of proving this.) According to our lease we are responsible for repairs if they are due to negligence. Our main issue is with the number of plumber visits we are being billed for.

The landlord has charged us $50 for each of three separate visits to snake the toilet (he pointed out he was not going to charge us for the first visit he himself made). After each visit the toilet would work for about 24 hours and then reclog. He has also charged us $125 for cleaning the toilet trap, at which point the tweezers and toothbrush were found. The toilet has worked fine since then.

Are we responsible for some repairs? It seems impossible to prove otherwise. But should we be responsible for the first three visits by his handyman which did not fix the toilet?

[Mr. Knowitall]

Tell us exactly what you mean by "his handyman" - this is an employee of the landlord? Or is this a third party service with your landlord asking you to pay the exact amount billed?

[calliecat]

That's a good question. I'm not sure the exact relationship between the landlord and "his handyman", but I suppose he's a third party service, but one that is a good friend of the landlord and so always does work around the house when we mention that something needs fixing to the landlord.

You also bring up a good point about the "exact amount billed". We've never seen any bills/receipts for this work. We've now asked the landlord to produce them.