system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
The amount of people in this thread who think that rental properties are based on anything other then what the market will bear is hilarious.

Your rent is always at the maximum the landlord can charge. There may be isolated landlords who are too lazy or even kind to raise rates, but 99% are charging the max they can while still keeping the unit occupied.

Pouring grease down a drain and causing plumbing problems doesn't have an impact on the broader rental market and amount that any indivudal landlord can charge while maintaining occupancy.

If the landlord tries to raise rent by a meaningful amount in order to recoup maintenance costs, they will either not rent the property because its priced to high or they would have always been able to rent the property at that price and its not magically justified because of oil down the drain.
gpt
This. Rents are min/maxed already. Damage to the property won’t make a landlord charge more. They’re already pushing it at market rate. It’s silly to think otherwise.

Also since clogged pipes like this take *time* to actually happen it’s actually very fair to tell them to shove it if they blame you.

Other units and previous tenants easily could be the cause and they can’t prove otherwise. And frankly it could be very accurate. If the previous tenant spent ten years dumping oil down that drain and you spent 1, why are you paying for the entirety of the damages? Or any if you aren’t really contributing at all?

Not suggesting to do it as you could very well find yourself without working plumbing and that sucks but for crying out loud this wont increase rent or have you losing in court except in outlier situations.