I rent a space in a strip mall style building for my restaurant. There is a recurring sewer line backup because the line is old and makes a 90° turn. This gets clogged a few times each year. The turn is about 160 feet from my shop. Despite this affecting at least four other tenants, I am always the person who calls to get it fixed.
The landlord knows what the problem is and will not fix the pipes because it is “cost prohibitive.” They have a contract with a local plumber to come blast hot water down the line periodically.
Even with that plumber coming out, we have backups a couple times a year still. The sewage backs up onto my floor through a floor drain, through my utility sink, and my toilet. Other tenants are similarly affected. Earlier this year it backed up so bad one of the other tenants closed for two days to have professional cleaner come in and clean up their store.
I am wondering what options I have here. I have a lawyer who helped me with my lease who I could contact. But I figured I would ask and see if anyone here had any suggestions before I make that call.
Check your lease agreement on repair requirements. I am not 100% sure on who handles it for business leasing but HUDs usually quickly get involved with housing issues like this so I assume there is a dept that would be concerned here. Whatever local department it is would not be happy about a landlord preventing a business from safely operating, thus costing tax dollars if eventually you are shut down due to health code violations. Maybe if you have to escalate, keep that in your back pocket as you can sue for cost of lost income while being shut down due to the landlords negligence. Keep a paper trail of these communications because I can’t see sewer backing up into a restaurant on a regular basis being a sustainable business practice.