When does the landlord owe compensation for no water?

Answer 1

The landlord owes compensation for no water when it is their responsibility to provide water as stated in the rental agreement or local housing laws, and they fail to do so without a valid reason. The specific circumstances and requirements for compensation may vary depending on local laws and the terms of the rental agreement.

Answer 2

Depends, and then the question becomes in part what kind of compensation are you talking about?

I'll assume the rental agreement includes water (like for sinks, toilets, etc.) and the landlord stops providing the water, there may be no reason, and there may be a good reason.

1. LL turns off water because you didn't pay rent - in most places a LL can't do this without a formal eviction proceeding.

2. Water main breaks, takes water utility several days to fix. Or the water is tainted and utility turns it off - most leases excuse LL from performing if it is beyond LL's control. Everybody is out of luck until there's a fix.

3. Does the lease give the T the right to self-help? If no, Tenant may be out of luck. If so, yippee (maybe).

4. LL supposed to provide water, doesn't and there's no good reason AND there's a state or local ordinance that gives the T the right to procure its own water and deduct the cost of the alternate water source from rent. Yippee.....

5. Same - you may be able to move out under a theory of "constructive eviction" where having water is so essential that continuing to live in a place without it makes the place "untenantable" (basically uninhabitable or hugely onerous).

There may be other reasons and other results. But the customary rule is that if you were supposed to get something and didn't and the failure to deliver is a breach of an obligation you bargained for, you're entitled to the benefit of your bargin -- no more and no less.

So for any further "compensation" the LL's action might have to be extreme, malicious or so egregious as to warrant "punitive" damages and whether such damages are even available in cases like this varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.