I need your help regarding a situation between myself and my landlord.

I live in a duplex. I live on the bottom floor and there is the crazy lady above me.

There is a sewage line coming from our house out into the main line. Every house/apt is this way.. obviously.

Our sewage line is broken/crushed/cracked somewhere and this past weekend I had shit and piss about 4 - 6 inches deep in some places in my basement. The sewage backed up through our drain in our basement.

The landlords had plumbers here and also someone to come and clean the basement.

Heres the catch.

I had about $500 - 700 worth of clothes, throw rugs, area carpets downstairs that got ruined by the sewage.

When the "cleaner" guy started cleaning, the landlord(she) told the guy to go ahead and bag up the clothes and carpets and pitch them in the garbage.

At this point I figured.. Ok, they are going to reimburse us considering she and the cleaner guy agreed they would never wear clothes like that again either.

So when I mentioned reimbursement a couple minutes later.. She says.. Oh you dont have renters insurance..

I dont.. I dont have renters insurance. I dont even think theyd cover something like this.

So now they dont want to reimburse us and they are sticking to the renters insurance story. We "should" have had it.

Heres the other catch. About 2 months after I moved in this house. The basement got backed up like it did this past weekend. The same procedure happened with the plumber and the cleaner.

The plumber told the landlords that the pipe needed to be replaced and a backup would for sure happen again.

This is where I think I should get reimbursed because its basically landlord neglect that made our fking basement back up again...

Is there anywhere I can get with this?? Any loopholes that you know of??

Who can I call thats kind of above the landlords???

Thanks!
-Dustin

 

contact your local constable....

 

Not sure whether you have a claim, but why don't you have renters' insurance? I think I pay less than $200 per year for more than $30,000 worth of coverage. It may be even less than that because I also get a discount on my car insurance since I also have renter's insurance from the same company. It's so cheap, it's hard to understand why someone wouldn't get it.

 

Depends on your contract and what it states. There could have been verbiage in there that releases her of liability for things like that because it states you are liable for providing your own renter's insurance. If that's the case, then you're out of luck.

You also have to prove that the sewage backed up in the past and that a new pipe wasn't installed but rather it was patched or temporarily fixed which caused it to rupture again this past weekend. That I could see as being LL negligence and you could probably sue the LL directly.

http://www.geico.com/home/renters/coverage.htm
What does Renter

 

I'm in PA also. I pay exactly $100 for $100K worth of insurance. Worth having, though I was told that the reason for renter's insurance was to cover my fault or accident, not someone else's.

 

You should have had renter's insurance. That being said, you could take the landlord to small claims court. You are in school, see if there is a law office on campus that can help you.

 

The ISO form for renters insurance does cover this, as long as the discharge of water was a result of some blockage that occurs within the plumbing of the propery itself, not off-property. The wording of a well-designed lease agreement protects the landlord against this sort of liability, and in come cases even goes so far as to suggest that you had renters insurance.

That being said, I agree with Raj... if he had knowledge that this problem needed repair previous to the damage occuring, I'd sue his ass if I were you. Ever see "The Super"?

 

just FYI, a lease can say whatever it wants, most states have laws clearly covering the liability of the property owner that trump whatever might be stated in a signed lease. It is very common for lease terms to be in violation of law.

FWIW, most landlords tend to feel like the whole system is against them and give you one sob story after another, while most tenants' experiences trying to get security deposits, damages in cases like these, etc. tell another story.

Take your landlord to court. They are responsible for any damages caused by things like this. The idea that "you should have had renters' insurance" somehow lets them off the hook is ludicrous. It's their sewer pipe, their property, and their responsibility. If the roof caved in and the furnace exploded, they'd have the same story about what you should or should not have, but the liability is the same. Obviously you should get insurance to protect yourself from another loss, but whether you have insurance or not doesn't change the liability of the landlord.

Plan to move.

 

Something similar happened in one of my houses....except my tenant actually caused the backup which then damaged her $129 x-mas tree.

anyway.... like stated above by someone, you need to read your lease..... it sucks, but my lease said I was not responsible for damage.

to go to court, you would need some proof that there is a plumbing issue and that the landlord didn't fix it. I doubt any plumber will volenteer their time to offer their opinion (which needs to be fact instead of opinion).... a lot of times it is what people flush. The upstairs lady may be flushing tampoons and had an extra bloody month..

anyway.... get renters insurance for the future for sure.....you could mention court and see what the landlord says...kind of like a bluff........ i would just pass on this and call it a learning experience unfort....

 

Thanks guys..

We are planning to move.

The thing is, I dont have the time nor money to go and sue them all for $500.

Ill be in the hole with lawyer fees, time off work and all the crap only trying for $500.

I know renters ins. is cheap. I had it at my last apartment but I just never renewed for this one. Looks like it would have depended on what ins. co. I had if the damage wouldve even been covered.

I know I could get them in court. The reason it backed up is definitely because they didnt fix it AND it IS the private sewage line from this house thats broken.

All I'd have to do is get one of the plumbers that was up here the other day and just have them reiterate what they said to the landlord themselves on my front porch > The private line was broken or collapsed somewhere.

We're looking for some other places around here. Its hard because we've made decisions this past year knowing that we lived at this place.. IE: Bought 2 dogs, Bought a motorcycle because I have a garage to keep it in..

Those things are now hindering us in places we can move to because most places dont accept pets. The ones that do dont have a garage in or around..

Thanks again guys,
I dont know where Ill go with this yet.
-Dustin