We live in a big, beautiful, old house–over 130 years old, in fact. It has been divided up into apartments for many years though, and my wife and I inhabit the top floor. The second floor has two apartments; the ground floor also has two. We know, and are on good terms with, everybody in the house. All five units are allowed storage space in the basement, and my wife and I had used ours to the max.
But recently, the fellow in one of the ground floor units decided he’d like to change his bathroom. No problem with the landlord, and no problem with any of us–until today.
Seems in order to change his bathroom, he also needed to change the plumbing, which entailed shutting off the water, cutting pipes in the basement, installing new pipes, then soldering them closed. Fine, but yesterday, in the process, we had a minor flood in the basement, which soaked a lot of our stored goods.
Really, there isn’t much damage that a simple drying out wouldn’t cure. But there are a few things–keepsakes, antiques, photos, and the like–that were irreparably damaged. My wife’s antique knitting basket, for example, literally fell apart when I picked it up. A few hundred photos are now drying out on tables in our home. And I had to spend five hours of my time (I’m self-employed, and my hours are billable) pulling everything out of the soaked boxes and repacking it in dry boxes.
What would you do? Would you take it up with the tenant who caused the problem? Or would you, in the interests of neighbourliness and the fact that not that much (in dollar terms) was really damaged, just let it ride?
I’m at a loss for what to do about it. Any ideas?