Freaking out - mold-filled, flooding basement apartment, and I'm the landlord

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I lurk a great deal, but don’t usually post here. However, I’ve seen that there are a lot of very level-headed people here, and I’m in need of some level-headedness.

My husband and I own a condo. We weren’t able to sell it this past spring, so we decided to rent it out. We are currently living in another state, but my sister lives relatively near the condo and offered to look after it (we’re paying her a small amount, really small compared to anything we’d pay a company to look after the place). The apartment is in a basement and was left vacant (and therefore closed up) during the summer. This was our first mistake. Also, the drain outside the apartment has not been cleaned regularly because we usually do this ourselves and didn’t think to ask my sister to do it. That was our second mistake.

We had a tenant move in on Aug. 1. Both he and my sister had checked out the apartment multiple times with no problems. (He stopped by twice to look around before signing the lease, my sister also stopped by once before he moved in.) However, within days of him moving in there were all sorts of problems. At first the issues were minor, but the daily e-mails with new things being wrong were getting really stressful. Then the tenant e-mailed me about a hole in the wall with possible mold damage. I immediately called a mold inspector, had them come by as soon as possible, and confirmed the presence of mold. The tenant and I agreed it would be best if he moved out as the air quality was compromised. So I gave back the rent and security deposit, and he agreed to move out as soon as he could find a new place. The mold report alone was bad enough - we’re going to have to spend several thousand dollars removing the mold and waterproofing the basement, and this won’t happen on a timescale to get another renter by Sept. 1. I was already severely depressed about this - we’re now paying mortgage on condo + rent on current home + mold removal and repair. That’s enough to use up all our available savings right there.

Well, this morning, the tenant had scheduled the movers to come by to move the rest of his stuff. However, due to torrential downpours last night, the apartment had flooded. I know exactly why this happened - the drains outside the apartment needed to be cleared. We were going to do that this weekend, as we were planning to visit the condo anyway to look at the mold issue and start calling mold removal companies. However, apparently we were exactly 3 days too late. Apparently the entire apartment flooded, damaging his belongings, including electronics and several law books. While on the phone with my sister, he threatened to sue us for damages. I hadn’t been able to reach him up to that point, so I decided to just e-mail him and say we would pay for whatever wasn’t covered by the rental insurance. Since it’s looking like rental insurance won’t cover anything, we’ll probably have thousands in damages that we have to cover. I am responsible for the flooding and want to pay the damages, but having this on top of the mold issue makes me want to cry.

At this point, after nearly two weeks of dealing with daily e-mails with one crisis after another with this tenant, I am near my breaking point. I just want him gone, I want to never hear from him again. I hate confrontations, no matter how civil they might be, and at this point we’ve had several. More than that, I hate myself for what’s happened to the property. I am angry with myself for being so ignorant about what vacancy can do to a place. This all would have been so preventable - install a dehumidifier to prevent mold problems during the summer months, and make sure the drains are regularly cleaned. That’s all we needed to do.

And not that it’s really relevant, but I have several other worries on my mind at the moment. I am 7 months pregnant with a baby who has a congenital heart defect and will likely need surgery right after he’s born. I will quit my job at the end of October, thereby removing my pitiful but still significant income, and before I quit my job, I am trying to finish a major project that has had me working 12-hour days every day for the past few weeks. My husband’s doing the same because his company has been ridiculous about saddling him with one project after another - he has literally not been sleeping in order to get everything done. Which of course means that everything condo-related has fallen on me to deal with. I honestly just feel like I can’t handle the stress. I am shaking, very nearly crying, and writing book-length posts on SD while at work when I should be working on my project. There’s just nothing I can do right now, and it’s driving me crazy. Can’t work on the condo, because we won’t be there til this weekend. Am waiting for tenant to contact me to report the total damages, but that won’t happen until tomorrow probably. Can’t work on my project because I can’t concentrate. And can’t go home and cry because I think it’ll just make me feel worse.

Any advice, reassurance, anything at all would be much appreciated. Except recrimination - trust me, I’ve got that one covered.

2

As someone who dealt with this from a renter’s POV but with a shitty landlord who had to be taken to court to let us out of our lease I would like to say thank you for being so concerned and caring about your tenant’s health and well-being. As for the rest of it I can’t be of too much help. Clean things up to the best of your ability and know that even though it sucks royally to be going through all of this you are a wonderful person for being so understanding of the needs of your tenant.

3

Is the physical maintenance of the property your responsibility, or that of the condo association?

If it is the association’s responsibility, you may have legal recourse. IANAL.

4

Thank you, pbbbth, I really appreciate those words. I feel absolutely awful about all of this.

Vunderbob, the inside of the condo is our responsibility. The exterior walls of the condo and the foundation itself are the condo association’s responsibility, and that could indeed help with some of the repair costs. We still need to look into this to see how much of the repair can be done just by ripping out and replacing drywall on the inside and how much requires dealing with the exterior brick walls and foundation.

5

I think you might be missing part of **VunderBob’s **point - if the condo has any sort of homeowner’s association fee that includes **groundskeeping as part of their obligation, then the HOA is on the hook for letting the drains block up, and THEY then have to reimburse your tenant. **

I am not a lawyer, but if it isn’t your job to keep that drain clear and open, then I would totally let the HOA take the hit.

6

Oh, you’re right, I did miss that. I’m not sure of the answer…when we lived there, my husband always cleared the drains. They’re right outside our door and wouldn’t affect the other units. But I’ll have a look at the condo association documents tonight and see what it says. Thanks!

7

They would also be liable for the carpet and drywall in the unit, too. ETA: Because their inertia caused the interior problems.

8

Did you have a contract with the tenant? What does it say about covering his belongings? This sounds odd that you would cover the damage to his stuff out of your pocket. Usually the tenant is supposed to have coverage. I don’t think you are obligated to cover his damage.

9

Having experienced a similar situation myself, I agree with this, unless it’s written in the rental contract that you would cover damages. I had an apartment flood years ago that was due to poor maintenance by the building, and a bunch of my stuff was wrecked. When I asked about damages, they said my renter’s insurance will cover it. Of course, being young and stupid, I didn’t have any, and talked to a lawyer. Yup, it was up to me to get insurance to cover my belongings, and the building was not responsible for those damages.

10

To be clear, the drywall and other indoor repair we have to do is because of the mold, which is probably because the unit was vacant and closed all summer. Usually (when we lived there) it gets more ventilation because we would have the windows open all the time, so I’m betting that’s what caused the problem.

We did technically have a lease, but had already negated that (if that’s the right legal word) due to the mold. I had already returned the rent and the tenant was already in the process of moving out. The tenant did have rental insurance, but he’s saying that the flood coverage he has won’t cover the damage. I need to ask him about why exactly. If it is true that his insurance won’t cover it, I do feel obligated, morally at least, to cover the damages. If the drains were our responsibility (I still need to look this up to confirm), and if the flooding resulted from clogged drains, then aren’t we responsible for the flooding?

11

As my husband says, one crisis at a time. :slight_smile:

You’ve got A LOT on your plate right now, and you’ll get through all of this eventually, but until then, it will be a long, hard, slog, but don’t forget that it won’t be forever. Your job will end, your baby will come, he’ll have his surgery and start recuperating, you’ll get all the condo messes cleared up.

Have you been able to find out why his rental insurance won’t cover anything? This sort of sounds like a textbook thing that insurance should cover.

I don’t really like this, but it might be right for your situation - can you default on your mortgage on the condo and let the bank foreclose on it? At some point throwing good money after bad just doesn’t make sense any longer.

12

The “it’s not my responsibility if your stuff gets damaged” clause doesn’t apply when there is negligence involved.
Have you contacted your insurance company? Your investment property or landlord policy should be covering lost rent and possibly some of your damage, and the condo association policy could also cover some of the damage.

13

Back-up type flooding is not standard on a renters policy. Usually it’s available as a rider.

14

I don’t know what state we’re talking about, but in mine, homeowners’ and renters’ insurance policies do not cover flooding. You have to have a separate rider specifically for flooding. I’m not even sure if you can get a flood damage rider on renters’. It’s this way in this state because this is a hurricane prone area and often, there’s more damage from flooding in a hurricane than from winds. Unless you get the separate rider, the insurance companies will not cover flood damage. This has screwed over a lot of people who have hurricane riders but do not get separate flood riders because they think the hurricane rider covers damage from hurricanes. They do, but not if the damage is from flooding. Crafty little fuckers, those insurance underwriters.

15

All I’ve got is {{{{starryspice}}}}

16

Only if the HOA agreement allows it. My brother had to replace carpeting and drywall last year in the unit that he owns because of an ice dam on the roof owned by the HOA.

The HOA said “Look right there in your contract it says ‘TOUGH FUCKING SHIT, CONDO OWNER!’” :frowning:

17

Humm - I would also think that the condo association would be on the hook for your damages and that your tenant would be on the hook for his (or his insurance would).

18

You really shouldn’t cover his losses based on moral grounds. It’s really nice if you can swing it, but you’re under no obligation.

Plus, you have no verification about what was really lost in the flood. He could be saying all that stuff was covered in water, but how do you really know? Or maybe he threw stuff in the water knowing that it would be covered. And how are you going to value all the stuff? How much is an old law book worth? etc. Too many problems.

I worked at a computer store where a pipe broke in the stock room. “Yay!” the owner said, and he proceeded to throw all kinds of old merchandise in the water thinking insurance would cover it all. Oops. It turns out his insurance didn’t cover flooding from a broken pipe.

19

Update:
The tenant’s flood rider covered only sump pump failures and sewage back-ups. Since it’s a storm drain that backed up, not a sewer drain, the insurance company probably won’t cover it. (Although for some reason, he thinks the water came up through the floor rather than due to a clogged drain. I’m not sure why, but I did inform him of the clogged drain and asked him to tell the inspector.) The inspector will come by tomorrow and then we’ll know for sure about that.

I am willing to cover the property damage due to the flooding because I feel responsible for the flooding. I will call a lawyer friend of mine tonight and see what he thinks about legal obligation, but I’m pretty sure I’m legally obligated because we should have been more regular about the drain maintenance. Not to mention, the tenant already threatened to sue, before I offered to cover the property damage. I’d rather just pay him something and be done with him. It’s shitty bad luck that this all happened right before our drain maintenance this coming weekend, but that’s life.

The tenant is still very upset, as is obvious from the tone of his e-mails. I definitely understand that, but I’m at a loss for what to do to make the situation any better. I’ve already offered to cover the losses, while also making sure that he does make the correct claim to the insurance company. There’s not much I can do beyond that. In the most recent e-mail, he closed with, “in any case, the damage to my property is insignificant compared to the moving expenses I have and will incur moving into a more expensive apartment in [city].” (Quote is paraphrased, don’t want to directly copy and paste his e-mails to me.) This could just be him venting, but it almost sounds like a veiled threat for a lawsuit. Am I just being paranoid? I understand it was difficult for him to find another apartment so close to Sept. 1, but there’s really nothing I could or can do to help him with this, so I’m not sure why he brought it up.

20

Ugh, it almost sounds like he’s fishing for you to pay any extra rent over and above what he was paying with you. I would bring this up with your lawyer too.