Q: There is a landlord that has a property. On it there are three homes. In the one main home is a close relative that stays. The other two are rented out. The relative does not pay for anything. At first, the landlord gave the administration duties to the relative but the relative could not manage it properly.
The three homes are being fed by a single borehole for water (no municipal water) that is fed to three separate water tanks with three separate pipes to each homes. After excessive rains, the pressure pump got damaged and as a result the water pressure dropped considerably to the homes. The relative decided (while the pressure pump was attended to) to cut off one of the houses water supply so that they get a little more pressure in theirs. When the landlord came to know about it, he sent a message to them that they have no permission to do this. They ignored this message and went a step further to cut the other pipe as well and feed the main pipe to their home, resulting in that they have a little more water pressure so that they do not have a problem to shower. The landlord is in another province and is unable to attend to the problem personally. What should he do?
The one suggestion that was given is that because you are only charging rental to the two homes, the water issue is not your problem and they must sort it out themselves between the three of them and split all the costs, even the pressure pump. You were kind to supply good water pressure to their homes. If you go the extra mile you will be rewarded but there will be spiritual cost involved by being harsh with your relative. What is the Shariah way to deal with this?
A: It was not right for the relative to act independently and cut off the water supply from the tenants. The relative should be advised to refrain from doing this in the future. If there is any cost required to restore the water to the tenants, then the relative should pay for it.
As far as providing water to the tenants is concerned, then if this was part of their lease contract, then the landlord should repair the pump as it was not damaged through actions, but it was damaged through the rain.
And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
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