Advice for renting and land lord won’t balance chemicals?

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ladiekali

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Nov 24, 2016
79
Davenport Florida
I’m now renting a home in Florida with a pool. The lease says pool care included. What he’s done is lock all the controls and loaded the pool with chlorine. The chlorine level is over 30. I keep asking that he please either balance the chemicals or let me do it, he insists that the pool is good or it would turn green.

I know better. You all taught me how to care for my 30,000 gallon pool two years ago! I’m beside my self on what to do. Does any one have advice on how to handle this?

I just want to swim in the pool i pay for.
 
take a sample to pol store and get printout
email printout to property manager/landlord and explain you are a pool professional
repeat twice per week until they relent
we both know pool store testing is not worth the paper it is printed on but you need that printout and the recommendations
 
Does your signature reflect where you are now or a previous pool?

Only way I can see is get your self your own test kit and mange the chemistry yourself. And pay for it. Only way I would use the pool.

Does the landlord use a pool service for chemical additions?
 
I think advising on landlord vs. renter disputes may be beyond the scope of this site even with a pool involved.

The Landlord can be held responsible for providing a safe and habitable dwelling to the Renter. If you can demonstrate that the pool water chemistry is not safe or unhealthy then maybe the local legal system who handles such disputes can order the Landlord to rectify the problem. Or they can allow you to break your rental agreement and vacate the property with no penalty. Short of that there is no way to force a Landlord to do anything.

A FC level of 30 may be safe or unsafe depending on the CYA level in the pool. You need a complete set of water tests to determine the status of the water.

How is that chlorine level being maintained? Who is adding chemicals to the pool? What equipment is locked down that you can;t access and adjust?
 
Thanks all. The cya level is 60. I do have a print out.

I am in Florida now.

I’m not trying to ask for legal advice. Just ideas on how to handle it.

Landlord uses a guy who drops tabs in a chlorinator. I’ve only seen him twice since November.

There is no property manager. Just the landlord.
This used to be a vacation home so everything has locks.

Other than paying for a lawyer, I don’t have a clue who to go too.
 
Ladie,

I have a couple of rent houses with pools and I personally take care of the pools. They are SWCG pools and I use the TFP principles so not a real issue for me. But, I can see both sides of this discussion...

From the Landlords point of view he does not want someone that is going to destroy the pool... To do this he has hired a pool service.. A poor choice, I agree, but that is what it appears he has done.

Your task is to convince him that you can do a better job.. How you do that really depends on your relationship with him... I see two options...

1. Convince him that the current pool guys is not doing the job and is potentially hurting the pool. I like the idea of showing him pool store printouts.. Tell him you can't swim in an FC of 30, I doubt he will know if that is true or not...

2. Make it worth his while, by telling him he can fire the pool guy because you will do it for free.. Yes, not what the lease says, but at least you know what you are swimming in.

Keep in mind he is not renting the house to do you a favor, but as a source of income. You need to convince him that you can save him money on future repairs or current costs.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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ladiekali said:
Landlord uses a guy who drops tabs in a chlorinator. I’ve only seen him twice since November.
.
Click to expand...

Do you have access to the equipment pad and the chlorinator? If so, remove some of the tablets. test the FC yourself, and add back the tablets as needed to maintain a reasonable FC level.

Next time the pool guy comes by talk with him and tell him that he is over chlorinating the pool. Or ask the Landlord who is taking care of the pool because you want to discuss some things with him.

What I have seen in rental houses with pools is the pool guy realizes the house is empty or the renter does not care about the pool. So he no longer comes by weekly and takes shortcuts like putting in a bunch of tablets that can last a few weeks. When I have been in rental houses with pools I will chat up the pool guy, talk about water chemistry and what pools are like in the area, let him know I intend to use the pool and spa, and he then does an ok job while I am in the house.

I think that if you talk with the pool guy and let him know that you intend to use the pool and expect the water chemistry to be within acceptable range he will take care of it.

I would begin with trying to talk with the pool guy.
 
That’s what I thought too. After I asked the pool guy to test the chemicals. Actually I just asked if he would tell me what the readings were.... I never saw him again after that.

I’ve told my landlord that we have not seen him and that the pool is not being attended too. I really don’t think he cares.

Thankfully most communication is via text. The last text we got was that we don’t understand pool chemicals. I tried to school him gently. He is no claiming the chlorine has to be high because the phosphates are high and if we lower the chlorine the pool will turn green.

I don’t know a thing about phosphates. So I did not have a rebuttal.
 
Jimrahbe said:
Ladie,

I have a couple of rent houses with pools and I personally take care of the pools. They are SWCG pools and I use the TFP principles so not a real issue for me. But, I can see both sides of this discussion...

From the Landlords point of view he does not want someone that is going to destroy the pool... To do this he has hired a pool service.. A poor choice, I agree, but that is what it appears he has done.

Your task is to convince him that you can do a better job.. How you do that really depends on your relationship with him... I see two options...

1. Convince him that the current pool guys is not doing the job and is potentially hurting the pool. I like the idea of showing him pool store printouts.. Tell him you can't swim in an FC of 30, I doubt he will know if that is true or not...

2. Make it worth his while, by telling him he can fire the pool guy because you will do it for free.. Yes, not what the lease says, but at least you know what you are swimming in.

Keep in mind he is not renting the house to do you a favor, but as a source of income. You need to convince him that you can save him money on future repairs or current costs.

Thanks,

Jim R.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I will try that. I have to school myself on phosphates now. Because he said today that is why the chlorine has to be high.

According to Leslie pools the phosphates are 500. I am not real sure what that means right now. I’m getting conflicting information online on wether it’s a issue or not.
 
Phospates of 500 is not high.

Phosphates is food for algea. He is correct that if you don’t maintain sufficient FC the phosphates can help algae bloom. You just need to maintain FC levels as shown on the FC/CYA Chart. He has gone way over board in the FC level needed.

Here is a recent discussion about phosphates- Phosphates Debate
 
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I'm guessing the CYA is well above 60ppm and the FC has to be high or the pool will go green and the landlord learned this the hard way. He also has little incentive to learn the TFP method and your chance of teaching the landlord is zero or less. I feel your frustration as you know how this works but may be powerless to correct things and enjoying your rented pool is difficult. You live there do what you can to make it right but realize it's not your pool.
 
Yup saw that, also says "has a print out". I assume that is a pool store test and can't tell from the signature whether the kit listed is capable of testing CYA. Sticking by my guess until I learn something new.
 
I used Leslie pools to test the chemicals yesterday.

I do believe the cya is 60. I am sure the chlorine is over 30. The water was very dark pink.

I’m thinking I will present to him that I am more than capable of taking care of the pool. And will do it at no cost.

I didn’t think phosphates were a big deal as long as chlorine levels are maintained.

He’s a cheap guy so maybe if I am willing to maintain the chlorine on my own he will be willing to try. If I buy the chemicals and testing supplies.

In my 30,000 gallon pool it never cost more than $40 a month. This pool is under 10,000. The only time my big pool turned green was when we had to evacuate for a hurricane and we weren’t aloud back for two weeks. Even still it took less than a week to get the pool back to par.

Thank you to every one for your feedback and ideas.
 
Can we ask you to delete or modify your signature? It is pretty confusing to see what you post and it does not match at all to your signature.

Thank you.
 
I think if you insist on taking over pool maintenance your landlord will pin anything that happens to the pool or the equipment on you. I suspect that anything at all and he will call out his "experts" which will tell him your incorrect chemical understanding and levels was the reason the pump died, or heater broke, etc, etc. Are you willing to take on that liability?
 
Good point.

The pool guy came but recently. First, he used test strips. Tried to tell me the chlorine was showing a different color in the strip than it actually was.

I said, “listen. That chlorine is measuring off the chart. And I looked into the damage high chlorine in a pool can cause. One of the side effects is eye damage. My daughter is already blind in one eye. It also can cause respiratory problems. She’s 7. Do you want that on your shoulders?” He immediately responded that we should turn off them chlorination for a week. He confessed he was just a friend who was helping a friend and was not paid to care for the pool. He also told me not to add liquid chlorine because it will “damage” the pool.

So I guess I’m just stuck with a pool I can’t use. It eats at me because I pay electric and the pump runs 12 hours a day. If it wasn’t going to be swimmable it should have been winterized.

I tested the cya. It’s probably at about 70, if not 80. My eye sight is bad. But there is no way to lower the cya with out using liquid chlorine.

Unfortunately we have to stay here until we sell our other house. I appreciate every ones feed back.
 
The saying "if you act like you know what your are doing most people wont question you" is accurate.
Good on your for questioning the "expert" and getting a look behind the curtain.
Too bad about your situation and here is hoping your other house sells soon.
 
kali, how long do you expect to be in that rental house?

How much do you want to rattle the owners cage?
 

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