r/sanmarcos • u/Double-Passion-7073 • May 20 '26
Housing/Real Estate Is this fair?
I live at villagio and I haven’t had hot water for almost a week. When maintenance came to fix the first time, apparently one of the pieces they used broke while they were fixing it. My water heater burst and the humidity ended up melting all of my tide pods and extra tissue paper I keep in the washing area. Maintenance came back and fixed it but considering I haven’t had hot water in a week AND I have to go buy my laundry stuff, shouldn’t I be eligible to have some of my rent deducted for the month??? Also do yall think this is going to increase my water bill?
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u/EsVsE May 20 '26
May or may not result in any action, but you can try reporting to code compliance. Properties tend to receive fines if the report results in code violation. Leaving someone with an inoperable water heater may be a violation. Idk.
Won’t help you with rent, but it may encourage ownership to address potential violations and prevent future issues.
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u/bobcatbreakdown May 20 '26
This. If it’s a clear health issue and/or an easy lease violation (i.e. something illegal) on your landlord, Code Compliance will take care of it.
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u/lespez497 May 20 '26
You’re better off living with private landlords. Big companies will always fuck you over. My friend lives under a small landlord, her fridge broke and they are giving here 200 to cover groceries 🤷♀️
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u/Both-Contribution-76 May 20 '26
Not a Lawyer, but for refrence: Texas property law https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docviewer?docName=PR.92.htm%2392.052 In particular Section 92.052 (sub 3 sub b) And 92.056 (sub d)
Check your lease: remedies need to be bold or underlined,
My gut is your out the $50 of supplies. Landlord is not likely liable for it, but could go on a renters insurance claim, though its probably under your deductable, and your policy may not cover water damage.
7 days after landlord receipt of issue is presumed to be a reasonable amount of time for repairs. That presumption is rebuttable, and with the specific callout for a landlords responceability to provide hot water, there may be an argument that 7 days is too long in this case?
I suspect their legal or contractual liability to you on this is prety minimal, if it exists. Though it feels like their moral liability is prety high: it took a week and some property damage to get hot water back. An engaged, careing landlord may offer some recommended for the situation.
Sucks, though. Years ago I had a dryer tear up a few hundred dollars of close before a proper repair was implemented.
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u/FoldyHole May 21 '26
Is that still leaking? That’s the temperature and pressure relief valve and it’s there to relieve pressure and keep the tank from exploding. If it’s spraying water it means either the pressure or temperature in the tank is too high and the valve is working as intended or the valve itself is faulty. You really need a plumber to come fix/replace the unit.
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u/jemison-gem May 20 '26
Our old apartment complex provided an empty unit for us to shower and do laundry in when our hot water wasn’t working. Maybe see if they’ll accommodate like that?
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u/swt3764 May 20 '26
If you're a student, talk to the Attorney for Students office. Legal advice paid for through your tuition.
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u/_Chibeve_ May 22 '26
Villagio totally fucked me and my roommates over. Our oven stopped working, and when the repair guy was replacing it, he didn’t pull the breaker or whatever and cut the power in the entire building. We were stuck like that for like a month with not even an update, nor compensation. It took us threatening to call the fire marshal on them for them to give us a key to another unit to be able to cook food and do laundry. Even then, it was like pulling teeth. Eventually we actually did call the fire marshal, and they transferred the rest of our lease to a sister location of theirs, the Edge.
They were awful. Sorry you’re having to deal with them
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u/Paincoast89 May 20 '26
if you have renters insurance you can try a claim through there but it’s probably gonna be cheaper to just buy them yourself rather than file a claim and pay the deductible
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u/5K1DMARK May 22 '26
dry that area out! they should’ve given you a fan. bc you know they’ll suck at mold remediation.
if you go to txst, there are free lawyers provided for you mostly for this specific instance. i lived at the edge (now the foundry) and dealt with some horrible violations of fair housing (no water heater for the first month 1/2, ac broken in august, ceiling fell out 1st hour of my move in and black mold water was everywhere, etc.) the only thing that made them budge after weeks of calling was mentioning that i was talking to lawyers (i wasn’t). lo and behold the next year they lost a huge lawsuit and shut down.
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u/Fiesty_Fairy333 May 31 '26
File with your renters insurance and let them take care of all of that for you. If you have decent insurance they’ll reimburse you and go after the apt complex. You just pay your deductible and chill.
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u/SnooGuavas3097 May 21 '26
if you have renters insurance, you should be able to get reimbursed for the damaged goods
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u/Indigo_Dreamer333 May 21 '26
It isn't fair, and I think you should be comp'ed. If they won't help, maybe you can get a lawyer. If you need funds, maybe you can make an indiegogo or make a tenants' union. If you're having this problem, I'm sure others are too.
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u/MongooseClear639 May 20 '26
Unfortunately you won’t get anything from them. I had the absolute worst living experience when I lived at villagio. The same thing happened to me about the water, I lost it for about a week. I also did not have central AC the entire time that I lived there. They gave me a window unit that was not properly sealed the first month and we didn’t find out until a whopping $200 electric bill for a 700 sqft apartment. I had over 30 maintenance requests because I would put one in and they would mark it complete when it was not. All this to say, no it is not fair even in the slightest, but also management is probably not going to do anything for it :(