Texas landlord goes to tenant’s house. Then she sees he installed an outdoor shower: ‘Nice view of pvc pipe’

A Texas Landlord was bewildered by the Jerry-rigged outdoor shower a tenant installed on her property. Ko (@herringko) published a TikTok showing off the surprising modification made by one of her renters. While some folks who replied to her clip didn't think it was that bad, the real question is: Is a tenant legally allowed to do that? And what recourse does Ko have?

"And on today's episode of can you believe a tenant actually did that? We are off of the primary bedroom in this 1980s Kingwood patio home," she says, showing off the home's interior. She pulls open the sliding balcony door and steps outside.

She continues, "They installed an outdoor shower."

Initially, it's difficult to even discern the image Ko presents to her viewers. The shower in question is made almost entirely of wood, save for its faucet handles and shower head.

A visibly used barn door is shown stacked against the side of the house. Protruding from it are two handles that look like they'd be right at home on an outdoor hose setup. Due to the color scheme of the handles (red and blue), they appear to control the flow of both hot and cold water, respectively.

The barn door is attached to another inverted L-shaped wooden post. It has a single shower head jutting out of it. A single water line beneath it joins the two faucet handles, which appears to divert the water up to the head above. This creates a flow of user-temperature-controlled water, so folks can wash themselves off before heading inside.

As janky as the set up looks, Ko reveals a detail that makes it worse. She pokes her camera behind the wooden door, to reveal that the slab is covering up a window. As it turns out, the individual who set up this outdoor shower positioned it directly outside of the home's kitchen.

"But if you look behind it, that's the kitchen window. That just gets to look at PVC piping," she says, referring to the configuration hidden behind the piece of wood.

And while this board may provide a degree of privacy to from whoever's inside the home, this level of modesty isn't transmitted to any neighboring houses.

"And as you can see it's just open to the neighbors," she says, before her clip transitions to her standing back inside the home. "In the kitchen, ... you used to have a cute little window. You get to look at PVC pipe now," she says, before her video comes to a close.

Despite Ko's obvious disapproval with the DIY-shower job in the Texas home, some commenters who replied to her clip expressed their fondness for the homeowner's planning. "I actually like it," one stated.

Whereas another replied that they couldn't find an issue with the shower's placement outside of the window, seeing as it was so small. "Who is even looking out that little ... window. I like it," they penned.

While Ko expressed that the shower wasn't the "worst" she's ever seen, she doubled down in the comments that she wasn't a fan. "It's not the worst but come on," she replied.

Someone else in the comments shared their own resident-DIY-special involving windows.

According to them, a person who was unhappy with the amount of sunlight entering their home decided to simply cover it up. "I had a tenant spray paint the bedroom windows with red paint ... the actual glass ... Red paint ... when asked about it ... he said I was working nights and the light bothered me," they wrote.

If the idea of having a place to wash yourself or your pets off outdoors sounds appealing, you should think twice before going ahead and installing a shower all on your own. Water fountain business The Fountain Direct writes that "outdoor showers can be installed without a permit only when your local authority exempts the specific installation."

Furthermore, the company writes that there isn't any "nationwide permit exemption" for U.S. homes. Construction company Doing What's Right Interiors also writes that the Lone Star State is "unusual ... when it comes to construction licensing and permits."

In its blog post, the business adds that "Texas only issues state licenses to plumbers and electricians." However, that doesn't mean Texans need to get a licensed plumber if they want to create their own janky outdoor shower.

What that means is that if someone is performing plumbing work as a form of business, then they must attain a state license in order to do so. But if they're doing work on their own property, then no license is required.

That's according to Texas Chapter 1301 - Plumbers Subchapter B. Exemptions Section 1301.051. This law directly speaks to "Plumbing By Property Owner in Homestead." Justia U.S. Law features the legislation online, which came into effect on June 1st, 2003.

It reads: "A property owner is not required to be licensed under this chapter to perform plumbing in the property owner's homestead." I.e., if the patio wooden-door-shower-guy wants to install a wooden-door-shower on his patio, he is free to do so without a license. As long as he's the unlicensed guy doing it.

Otherwise, he'll have to get someone with state certifications to come and install the water-dispensing eyesore. And if that's the case, let's hope for the sake of the licensed plumber's business that photos of this particular patio shower don't make it to their Yelp page.

Although a property owner can install their own Franken-plumbing monstrosity on land that they own, this isn't the case with Ko's building. That's because her tenant, who's renting the home from her, is the one that installed this shower.

Texas state law will likely side with Ko and other landlords who've had their properties significantly altered by tenants. Modifying homes without written consent from a legal property owner can culminate in criminal mischief charges and leave the tenant liable for any repairs.