Water safety is a basic necessity for all renters, but what happens if your landlord fails to provide you with clean drinking water? Fortunately, you have rights as a tenant. You can sue your landlord for contaminated water in certain circumstances, and it pays to know your options.
Potential Health Risks of Contaminated Water
The water you use in your home can be contaminated with various heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, parasites, and chemicals. Each type of contaminant can produce different health consequences.
For example, heavy metals such as lead can cause neurological damage and developmental delays in children. Lead poisoning is also linked to reproductive problems in adults, including reduced sperm count and miscarriage. Other potential health effects of heavy metals in children or adults include irritability, abdominal pain, high blood pressure, poor appetite, and fatigue.
Bacteria and viruses, such as E. coli, Enterobacter, norovirus, and rotavirus, primarily cause digestive effects. You may experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever if you consume water containing these pathogens. Waterborne parasites, such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia, can cause similar symptoms that often persist for two to six weeks. Death is rare but possible in severe cases of waterborne illnesses among people with compromised immune systems.
Another common water contaminant is a group of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Frequent ingestion of PFAS is linked to many health complications, including kidney and testicular cancer, preeclampsia, low birth weight, high cholesterol, and liver enzyme changes.
The greatest risk of these health effects stems from drinking contaminated water or using it for food preparation. Some contaminants are a risk even if the water is boiled.
Landlord Responsibilities for Safe Water
While no federal law specifically requires landlords to provide safe water, most tenants have protections under their state’s implied warranty of habitability principle. When a landlord rents a residential property to a tenant, they essentially guarantee that the property meets basic living standards. They must maintain those standards throughout the lease term. Therefore, they must ensure that the property has drinkable water available.
Some states impose stricter responsibilities on landlords. For example, California’s Civil Code specifies that a rental unit is uninhabitable if it contains a dangerous lead hazard or has faulty plumbing.
Safety Responsibilities for Private Wells
The Safe Drinking Water Act, or SDWA, is a federal law that establishes standards for drinking water quality with maximum permissible levels of contaminants in public water systems. Local agencies must regularly test and treat public drinking water to enforce these standards. However, the SDWA does not cover private water sources. If your water comes from a private well, federal law does not require your landlord to test for or remove contaminants.
You may have some state or local protections depending on where you live. For example, Maryland’s House Bill 1069 establishes drinking water protections for tenants who use private wells. Under this law, landlords must perform well water testing on rental properties and disclose the results to current or potential tenants. They must also address contaminated well water promptly and provide a safe water supply until the issue is resolved.
Considerations for Multi-Unit Dwellings
Landlord water safety requirements for multi-unit dwellings, such as apartment complexes, are also specified at the state level. Few states specifically mention multi-unit dwelling requirements in their landlord-tenant laws, but certain state laws are more likely to apply to these dwellings.
California’s Proposition 65 requires businesses with 10 or more employees to warn consumers about known risks of exposure to certain chemicals. If the property owner knows that its apartment complex’s water supply puts tenants at risk of cancer or reproductive harm, they must provide notice in a conspicuous location on the premises to warn tenants of possible exposure. This law applies to most large apartment complexes and multi-unit dwellings owned by major companies.
Tenants' Rights in Contaminated Water Cases
Under the implied warranty of habitability, your duty to pay rent to your landlord is conditional upon the landlord providing you with a habitable residence, including access to drinkable water. Water is usually considered “drinkable” if it is treated for microorganisms, toxic chemicals, and fecal matter according to state and federal standards.
If your unit’s water supply is undrinkable due to contaminants, you might have the right to withhold your rent payments until the landlord repairs the issue. Depending on your local laws, you may also be entitled to pay for the repairs yourself and deduct the cost from your rent. Your local laws may specify how long your landlord has to repair the issue. For instance, New York City requires landlords to fix “immediately hazardous” conditions within 24 hours. If local law doesn’t specify a time frame, your landlord must make repairs in a reasonable amount of time, which you and your landlord can negotiate.
Renters’ rights sometimes include “constructive eviction” as a remedy in cases of contaminated water. If the issue is within your landlord’s control and they fail to fix it in a timely manner, you may have the right to terminate your lease and move out of the unit.
What To Do if You Suspect Contaminated Water in Your Rental
If you suspect your rental unit’s water supply is contaminated, consider testing it through a third-party laboratory. If the report confirms contamination, take immediate steps to protect your health and safety. Stop using your unit’s tap water and use alternate drinking water sources, such as bottled water. Notify your landlord of the issue in writing and request that they take action to fix it.
Meanwhile, document any symptoms or health issues you experience from the contaminated water. Get medical attention promptly and follow your doctor’s advice. Take photos or videos of any visible signs of water contamination, such as discoloration. Write down what you remember about the timeline of events and any conversations you had with your landlord regarding the issue. Take note of any smells, strange tastes, or changes in the water’s appearance.
Your landlord may argue that the contamination is not their responsibility, such as if the water quality issue stems from a municipal water supply problem. If your landlord refuses to fix the issue in a timely manner or claims that it’s outside their control, contact an attorney for advice. They can explain your options and outline how to sue your landlord.
Legal Grounds for Suing Your Landlord for Contaminated Water
You may have the right to sue your landlord for contaminated water on negligence grounds. To succeed in such a case, you must establish that your landlord failed to take reasonable steps to provide a habitable rental unit, causing harm to you. You must provide evidence that you suffered direct harm, such as an illness or injury, from the contaminated water.
A negligence claim is particularly strong if your landlord knew or should have known about the water contamination and failed to address it. You also may have a negligence claim if your landlord directly caused the contamination, such as by storing hazardous materials near the water supply or performing shoddy plumbing maintenance.
Breach of the warranty of habitability is another legal basis for suing your landlord. Unlike a negligence claim, you may not need to prove that you suffered bodily harm. Simply proving that the hazardous water contamination existed and your landlord did not take reasonable steps to fix it may be enough to support a breach of warranty of habitability claim.
Situations Where You Can't Sue a Landlord for Contaminated Water
You can only sue your landlord for contaminated water issues that are within their control. If a third party caused the water contamination, you likely won’t have grounds to sue your landlord. For example, your landlord may not be liable for the contamination if the problem stems from the city’s water supply or a neighbor’s chemical spill.
Additionally, you may not be eligible to sue your landlord if they’ve taken reasonable steps to address the contaminated water. This is especially true if the contamination resulted from a genuine mistake rather than intentional misconduct.
In addition, if you didn’t experience any harm from the contaminated water, you will likely have trouble succeeding in a negligence lawsuit against your landlord. For example, if you noticed signs of contamination but didn’t actually drink the water, you may not have a strong case.
What Compensation Can You Receive in a Contaminated Water Lawsuit?
You can receive compensation for any losses resulting from the water contamination and its consequences. These losses might include medical expenses, lost income, expenses for alternative housing, alternative water costs, and pain and suffering.
If you believe you might have suffered health issues from contaminated water, Keep Food Safe is here for you. We can connect you with a qualified legal professional who will inform you of your rights and the next steps for filing a lawsuit against your landlord. It often costs nothing to sue your landlord upfront—many attorneys work on a contingency basis, meaning they only get paid if you win your case. We offer a free consultation to explore your options, so contact us today to get started.
