Empty Wreck
I had a vacant house up for rent for a few months without any takers when during a particularly cold week the batteries in the thermostat failed. Without any heat, the water in the toilets froze and cracked the tanks. Once the weather warmed up the toilets began to thaw and began leaking water. The leaking continued for what I believe was about a week before we checked on the house and noticed the damage.
It was absolutely brutal. The drywall and ceiling were sagging off, the kitchen cabinets had all warped, the carpet was completely destroyed, etc. Also, because my home insurance did not cover vacant homes for longer than 30 days, they basically told me to go away. Myself and the co-owners of the house had to pay for all the repairs out of our own pockets while continuing to pay the mortgage over the course of a year while we fixed the damage.
We ended up selling the house for the same as we paid so all the interest payments since we bought it, plus the cost of the repairs, were all losses. Somewhere between $30 and $40 thousand I recall, split between the three of us. The lessons I learned from that experience was to always pay attention to your insurance policies to make sure you are properly covered and if you own a vacant house, turned the water off! Seriously, what were we thinking?