Apartment flooding, landlord not answering phone

In My Humble Opinion
1

Last Saturday, I came home to find water pouring out of an upstairs toilet. The carpet in the office, hall, and my bedroom upstairs was soaked, and it had soaked down through the carpet, into the floor underneath, and then down through the light fixtures and smoke detector downstairs in the living room, also soaking the carpet in areas, and the seams between drywall bits in the ceiling are all bulgy with some discoloration, and there’s even some discoloration on a wall.

I mopped up the water as much as possible with towels, and then I ran fans, and everything is finally dried out. However, it smells kind of musty and nasty in here, and the carpet really needs to be cleaned I think, and I have no idea what he’s going to want to do with the ceiling.

I left my landlord like six messages Saturday night, and I’ve been attempting to call him on both his home and cell phone each day ever since, plus I emailed him, and he hasn’t responded. I’m assuming he’s on vacation or something and didn’t bother to leave us any emergency contact information.

Meanwhile, the smoke detector is completely fried, and my apartment absolutely reeks, and I’m worried about what might be growing above the ceiling.

I live in California. Am I within my rights to get someone in to clean the carpets, and then deduct the price of that from my rent? Fixing the toilet isn’t a big issue, I’ve got the water turned off, and there are two more bathrooms in my apartment that can be used.

Any other suggestions about what, if anything, I ought to do about the ceiling? Could something nasty be growing in there that will kill me in my sleep?

2

bump
I am interested in seeing what people have to contribute. I would offer you a place to stay if I were on the west coast instead of the east. Do you have renter’s insurance?

3

I wonder if a call to the local health department might not help with the legalities of it all. I mean, if they deem the place uninhabitable or what have you, wouldn’t their decision trump anything the landlord might consider doing (or not doing)?

4

Start taking pictures of the damage. Document, document, document. Keep calling the landlord. Are you in an apartment or are you renting from an individual?

5

Yes, you are in your rights.

You may also sue them for habitability issues. They must reduce rent until all repairs have been made.

Call the state and report.

We went through this with our landlord a few months ago. We got 6 months of rent returned to us.

Say, your property isn’t owned by Horizon Management, per chance?

6

I’ll take pictures tonight. I’m in a townhouse apartment owned by an individual.

I’ve been calling around a bit today, and I was eventually referred to Legal Services, and apparently the only person who can answer my question is the small claims advisor, and I have to call tomorrow at a certain time of day to make an appointment to speak to him/her. It seems awfully complicated just to get a single question answered. The landlord will probably call me back by the time I get to speak to someone!

I don’t have renter’s insurance, and thankfully none of my possessions were damaged at all.

7

I’m not a CA state resident, but in NY state, which has significant tenant-rights provisions, with which I’ve fairly familiarized myself, the landlord may very well evict a tenant for not paying rent., or not paying rent in the full amount agreed upon by contract, regardless of the reason for non-payment. In cases where the warranty of habitability has been breeched, the law should side with the tenant, but the amount of rent-reduction must be decided by a judge. Presumably the judge would consider photos, video, witnesses, when arbitrating.

If the rights of a tenant are greater in CA, then I applaud the wisdom of its legislators. If it were my apartment, I’d personally try to involve any state-run health agency, as suggested above, in addition to pestering the landlord and announcing my intention to withhold rent in writing, until the hazard is resolved.

8

Do you know if the toilet was defective, or did it flood due to your negligence? (I’m not trying to be a bitch here, but that question will be asked, and you’ll need to know the answer.)

9

As I understand it, if the health department deems the place uninhabitable, you’re not going back in until it’s fixed. So make sure you have a place to stay and your essentials packed before you call them.

10

I’d hold off on cleaning the carpet. From what I understand water damage usually means you have to replace carpeting. It would be a shame for you to pay to have it cleaned and then have the landlord just have to pay again for it to be replaced anyway.

I’d focus on getting in touch with the landlord. Do you have any other contact info for him/her? Is there a family member you can reach? Do you know who usually does work for him or her?

Once the landlord gets back in town you can get the toilet fixed, carpet cleaned or replaced and damaged roof looked into. For now, best bet is probably just to move your stuff out of the damaged areas as much as possible to facilitate the cleaning or replacing of the carpets once the landlord is back around and fixing stuff.

Has the landlord been a jerk in the past? If so, then I can see maybe taking pictures and calling the health department and such. If not, I think there’s no reason to go into lawsuit crazy mode right off the bat. Give the landlord a chance to make things right before you start talking through lawyers, would ya?

11

I’m pretty sure the toilet was defective. When I got home, I saw that it was plugged, however, when a toilet becomes clogged, the water stops running at some point prior to it flooding the living room downstairs, so I’m pretty sure that if the toilet had been in normal working condition, there would have been no flood.

12

I’m curious: Who will ask that question?

13

Hehe, yeah, the landlord is a nice guy, I haven’t had any problems with him at all, so I don’t want to sue or anything. I’m just frustrated because I can’t get in contact with him and it reeks in here. :slight_smile: He provided me with two phone numbers, his cell and his home phone, and his email address. I don’t know who his family is, or who does work for him.

14

Sense you can’t contact the guy and he hasn’t mentioned going anywhere, maybe you should send the police to his residence. He could be incapacitated or dead. The neighbors may be able to tell the police where he is if nothing is wrong with him.

15

Here are some CA. tenants’ laws, and here is a (slightly :dubious:-inducing) website that has more info.

In Seattle, there is a tenants’ union, and that’s what I used when a similar thing happened to me. If you have an address for your landlord, I would send him a letter via registered mail (make a copy of the letter), detailing the problem, with dates, times, etc., including the times you’ve tried to contact him. This is just to CYA, in case you do end up having to move or something.

Also, talk to the other renters, if any – maybe he mentioned to one of them that he’s on vacation, etc.

Good luck! We got to move out immediately, because our water heater burst (in the middle of the night) and our landlady was in Germany, and didn’t bother to tell us. Got our deposit back, no rent on the few days into the month that it happened, etc.

16

The Nolo Press books on tenants rights will set your mind at ease.
Basic law is that in emergencies anything a rational person would do is justified, and anything that would be done by a consciencous landlord can be done on his behalf by the tenant at the landlord’s expense, provided he is unreachable.

17

Looks like it is time to install that home theater system!!
:smiley:

18

Since he’s probably going to have to at least replace the pads under the carpet, I’ve decided to just wait until I hear from him (still haven’t). The smell is barely noticeable anymore since I’ve been keeping the windows open and it’s dry now (yay for warm California Novembers). I don’t know him very well, I’ve only lived here four months and I haven’t actually spoken to him since the day I did the walkthrough and signed the lease, but he seemed like a decent guy who cares a lot about his property, so I’m positive he’s just out of town or something and he’ll call as soon as he gets back.