Illustration: Emma Erickson
Welcome to “Apartment Department,” Curbed’s new advice column by Clio Chang. Join us every other Wednesday for questions about making peace with noisy-sex neighbors, the nuances of roommate fridge etiquette, and whatever else you might need to know about renting, buying, or crying in the New York City housing market.
Got a problem? Email clio.chang@nymag.com.
Dear Apartment Department,
Help! My co-op board is trying to force me to replace my beloved flushometer toilet with a tank toilet. They also want me to pay for it even though I have a perfectly good, working toilet right now. They say they want the swap because of “water and plumbing issues,” which seems very vague for such a cost-intensive request. I’ve done some research, and flushometer toilets aren’t all water-suckers — some are just as efficient! Also, I love my toilet. Can they make me give it up?
Yours,
Committed to my Toilet
Dear Committed,
First of all, I’m happy that you found a toilet you love. I also have a flushometer and have come to rely on its strong, commercial-grade flush. A hundred teenagers could use my toilet every day and it still wouldn’t clog. I can understand why you don’t want to give it up.
The question as to whether you’ll have to is both a legal matter and a relational one. On the first point: William Geller, a real-estate lawyer at Braverman Greenspun, tells me that many co-op proprietary leases specify that the owner is responsible for the plumbing fixtures inside the apartment, while the co-op is responsible for the plumbing systems outside the apartment. (Hallway toilet?) If this is the case in your lease, the co-op can’t force you to replace your toilet “unless it is broken or in violation of some legal requirement,” says Geller. If it’s broken or you wanted to replace it in a renovation, the co-op could then require that it meet certain specifications. (Federal law requires currently manufactured toilets to use a maximum of 1.6 gallons per flush.) If your lease specifies that toilets are the co-op’s responsibility, well, then it can change it, but it would be at its own expense, which might soften the blow of losing a toilet you love.
Now the truth of the matter is that a flushometer does generally use more water per flush than a tank toilet, and while I’m not going to pretend that your toilet is the thing sending us into the water wars of our near future, it is a worthy consideration. According to Chris Petri from Petri plumbing, the exact difference depends on the age of the toilet, but most homes use older models that “tend to consume significantly more water.” (Here’s a guide for checking your toilet’s gallons per flush, or GPF, so you can know for sure how much switching your toilet would or would not actually save water.) Petri estimates that switching to a more energy-efficient toilet could result in $170 per year in water cost savings — $3,400 or so over the lifetime of the toilet. Honestly, this is less money than I expected. That’s, like, one Italian sub a month. As for the “saving the environment” argument in favor of switching your toilet? I’d say take the initial step of checking your GPF. It’s probably good to have that information anyway, and it might guide your thinking. (Who knows — your board might have a point.) But in my personal opinion, if you don’t use ChatGPT to write your emails, then I think you should be allowed to keep your environmentally unfriendly toilet with a hardy flush, at least until it breaks.
Then there is the matter of your relationships. If all this turns into a game of chicken with your co-op board, it’s unlikely to be something it would want to go to the mat over. “If the co-op sues you over a toilet, they’re idiots,” says Julius Weil, who has served more than two decades on a co-op board. “It would cost them more than whatever water savings the building’s gonna get.” If you have solid proof that switching your toilet won’t actually save water, then I’d say hold your ground. But if it would save water and you still want to fight it, bear in mind it’s a slightly antagonistic thing to do (and may get you labeled “Toilet Guy” or something among your neighbors). We all generally must, and should, stand our ground in this life, but you will also likely be in this building for a long time and must choose your battles wisely. Only you can decide: Is this your battle?
Have a question for the Apartment Department? You can send it to clio.chang@nymag.com.