Our taca?o landlord...

May 29, 2006
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We recently moved out of our casita into a newly built two bdrm apt a few blocks away; we now rent our casita to mi esposa's sister.

Like most folks, we've got a 1000 liter tinaco for water on our roof that's fed from a cistern.* This is more than enough for us for a week, which is how often it's supposed to be filled, and it worked for our first two months, no problem.

But this did not happen last week.* We're in an ten complex and the last time they manually turned on the pump, the cistern went dry before our tank got any water.* That was Friday.* We could hear the pump running so we thought we had been topped off.* We did laundry on Saturday morning thinking our tinaco was full, and then we ran out of water in the afternoon. The landlord got the cistern refilled yesterday(Monday), confirming the cistern had gone dry and he was aware of the problem.* He's also put a new padlock on the cistern to prevent anyone from dipping into it with a bucket for five pesos worth of water.

This has not gone over well with us.* We're buying water off the trucks but only have a couple buckets in the house(and the washer), because why should we need buckets?* When mi esposa talked to the landlord asking him to refill the tinaco from the now full cistern, he talked down to her and said she just needs to be more careful about using the water that he has to pay for.* No more water in the tinaco until Friday.* We sure as hell didn't go through 1000 liters doing four loads of laundry.* We didn't go through half that in a week when we were in the casita and only had a 55 gallon plastic drum and a few buckets.

In other news, we've just found a new apt and we're hoping to be moving before Christmas.* Same price, better neighborhood, and no hassles with water.*
 

the gorgon

Platinum
Sep 16, 2010
33,997
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We recently moved out of our casita into a newly built two bdrm apt a few blocks away; we now rent our casita to mi esposa's sister.

Like most folks, we've got a 1000 liter tinaco for water on our roof that's fed from a cistern.* This is more than enough for us for a week, which is how often it's supposed to be filled, and it worked for our first two months, no problem.

But this did not happen last week.* We're in an ten complex and the last time they manually turned on the pump, the cistern went dry before our tank got any water.* That was Friday.* We could hear the pump running so we thought we had been topped off.* We did laundry on Saturday morning thinking our tinaco was full, and then we ran out of water in the afternoon. The landlord got the cistern refilled yesterday(Monday), confirming the cistern had gone dry and he was aware of the problem.* He's also put a new padlock on the cistern to prevent anyone from dipping into it with a bucket for five pesos worth of water.

This has not gone over well with us.* We're buying water off the trucks but only have a couple buckets in the house(and the washer), because why should we need buckets?* When mi esposa talked to the landlord asking him to refill the tinaco from the now full cistern, he talked down to her and said she just needs to be more careful about using the water that he has to pay for.* No more water in the tinaco until Friday.* We sure as hell didn't go through 1000 liters doing four loads of laundry.* We didn't go through half that in a week when we were in the casita and only had a 55 gallon plastic drum and a few buckets.

In other news, we've just found a new apt and we're hoping to be moving before Christmas.* Same price, better neighborhood, and no hassles with water.*

it seems like there are certain problems that *happen all over this country. i have recurrent problems with my landlady over water. it is particularly irksome when i cannot even go outside because it is flooded, but there is no water in my pipes.
 

Garyexpat

Bronze
Sep 7, 2012
2,105
739
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I had problems years back in a place I was renting in the capitol. The land lady came back from Italy and decided to put another apartment in the back of the house. Besides 4 more people using water daily she had guys pulling water to mix cement for the construction. Needless to say they used all of the water. I can go a while without electricity but NOT water. Only after I went psycho at her, her boyfriend and anyone/everyone with her did she buy some water.
Thank God that has been my only water problems in my tenure in the country.
 

josh2203

Bronze
Dec 5, 2013
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525
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We could hear the pump running so we thought we had been topped off.* We did laundry on Saturday morning thinking our tinaco was full, and then we ran out of water in the afternoon.

Living in an apartment building, assuming and expecting (does not of course work if something is broken, which is often the case) everything works as it's supposed to, you can verify is the tinaco got filled up by opening any water faucet at regular intervals. If the piping is installed as I think it's supposed to be installed, until your tinaco is filled, the water pumped from the cistern will be distributed among the pipes going straight to tinaco and the pipes going to the faucets. Once the tinaco is full, IF the valve in the tinaco works and the water is cut off automatically (in the end of the tinaco), all the water is now directed to the faucets only and the pressure will increase. So if everything works properly, and the piping to the tinaco does not leak or the valve isn't broken, when the water pressure significantly rises, only then the tinaco is filled to the top.

Of course you can verify this as well, even if the valve was broken, by checking which tinaco is leaking all the water to the roof once full.
 

bob saunders

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
32,504
5,932
113
dr1.com
Every time it rains for more than a couple hours most of Jarabacoa has no water because Corralavega shuts the inlets off to keep all the dirt out, a half day later water is restored but there have been occasion where out street has been without water for 2-3 days while the next street over is fine. It is frustrating.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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Once the tinaco is full, IF the valve in the tinaco works and the water is cut off automatically (in the end of the tinaco), all the water is now directed to the faucets only and the pressure will increase. So if everything works properly, and the piping to the tinaco does not leak or the valve isn't broken, when the water pressure significantly rises, only then the tinaco is filled to the top.

Pressure will increase any time the pump is running, even if tinaco is empty, not only when it is full.
 

Mauricio

Gold
Nov 18, 2002
5,607
7
38
In the five years I live in the house I live in now I haven't had water problems even 1 day. My next door neighbor though, same closed project, buys complete water trucks at least monthly. This week alone he bought two. And we are a family of 6. (Yes I do suspect he has a leak either in the cisterna or somewhere else.)
 

josh2203

Bronze
Dec 5, 2013
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525
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Pressure will increase any time the pump is running, even if tinaco is empty, not only when it is full.

True, this is why I said you have to first check how the pressure looks like when the tinaco is filling, if everything is in working order, you'll notice a clear difference in the pressure when the tinaco is actually full.

I have done this in four apartment buildings, and I know it works, if the piping works.
 
May 29, 2006
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I check the tinaco regularly, but when we heard the pump all day, I thought we were topped off. There are springs leaking water onto the road, but that doesn't help us much. The landlord is going to have a hell of time finding another tenant. We're there BC it's new construction and close to other family members, but there are plenty of other places with the same rent in nicer neighborhoods. I doubt the landlord will have much luck finding a new tenant.
 

drstock

Silver
Oct 29, 2010
4,502
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Cabarete
Many landlords here seem to be similar. They would rather lose a good, paying tenant than pay a few pesos to correct some small problem.
 
May 29, 2006
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They're used to tenants who can ill afford to change apts. Not just landlords. Plenty of colmados charge an extra five pesos for a jug of water and lose a good chunk of all their business BC they are thought to be thieves. Mi expose complains when I buy anything from the colmados that charge 55 pesos.

The same landlord has a new 200 sq ft storefront next to us he wants to rent for 8000/month. I don't think he can get half of that.
 
May 29, 2006
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Three of the other tenants have paid to have their tinacos filled. Mi esposa says it's 400 pesos for 1000 liters. That's a pretty big hit for working Dominicans.
 
May 29, 2006
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It's still more than a day's pay for many. The families around here usually don't waste money like that. Single guys blow money on booze and dominoes, but they usually live rent free. Mi esposa hits the salon for 200 pesos about once a month to relax her hair and she's never spent money on her nails. One of my in-laws even told me any woman with fancy nails is no good bc they'll never want to work. It's pretty sound advice, really.
 

rfp

Gold
Jul 5, 2010
1,402
137
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Ha its good to keep discretionary income out of these people's hands. All they do is drink, fornicate and steal. The 400 pesos on water is the best money they spend in a monthly financial cycle.
 
May 29, 2006
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Now two other tenants plan to leave by the end of the year. *He filled the cistern and tinacos yesterday, but the damage was done. *This has been an ongoing issue.

One of the tenants that is leaving runs a large colmado and works from 8AM to Midnight seven days a week. *He takes two breaks during the day when his helper minds the store. *He barely has time to fornicate and drink, much less steal.. *:)