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We're trying to get out of our lease - it's quite justified, but I just don't know if we can. Sorry for the long explanations.
My family returned from a trip a couple weeks ago and walked into an apartment flooded with grey water. It was nearly 10pm. We called the emergency maintenance line and he arrived within 15 minutes. He said all he could do was wet-vac the water, as anything further would disturb the other neighbors. He did so and left.
The floor in the kitchen was sticky and you could see where the water had receded, so it had been there a while. The counters were full of it, half dried, the carpet out into the dining room and behind the kitchen into the living room were sopping wet.
The next morning maintenance showed up again. He snaked the line (the water came from upstairs using grease, it clogged the line so when it backed up it went into our apartment). He used deodorizer on the living room carpet, ripped it up and stuck a fan under it. He did not do that to the dining room side.
We spent the next nearly 2 weeks scrubbing and bleaching everything the water came into contact with. We lost the couch (it soaked up into it) and some other items. We had recently had a different (clear water) flood from the a/c unit which took them a week to fix, but our stuff was still shoved up against the far wall from that one or the loss would have been much higher. Some boards and counters in the kitchen are warped.
They removed the fan the next day. The smell had dwindled but still persisted.
At the office, they told me that the removal of the water was all that was required of them. I wanted it decontaminated, because supposedly if grey water is left over 48 hours it is to be treated as black, and decontaminated fully with tests afterwards to check air purification. She did not even know we had the flood and said she would look into it. I haven't heard from her (been busy scrubbing, then came down sick). She also refused to give me the name/phone number of their insurance company and of course, refused to let us out of the lease.
in the case of grey water flooding, after 48 hours you should treat the problem as a black water situation.
Basically, with all the trouble we have had with this place that stretches back quite a few months, this is the last straw and we want out. We can't even put our stuff back because it will get the smell on it (we tried) so we have to live with half the livable space being unusable.
I was reading through Virginia landlord/tenant law and it looks like if the living space has been made unlivable that we can leave without "breaking" a lease. We will need our security deposit back.
Does anyone have any familiarity with this type of thing? Or know where I can get solid answers on the black/grey water thing for Virginia? To my mind, this place is a health hazard not fit for human occupancy. Two of us are sick (nausea, upper respiratory). We are heading to the doc tomorrow.
Thank you for any help.
I hope I got all the details above.. I really have to try to sleep, will check back first thing in the morning. Thanks again.
Last edited by brambled; 09-14-2016 at 02:35 AM..
Reason: clarifying
Why do you need their insurance information? You should file a claim for the items lost against your renters insurance policy.
IMO, they should have been fully responsible for cleaning the apartment not you but I don't know if that's cause to end the lease. And be sure that the damage caused by the flood is documented in writing and with photos so they can't claim you caused the damage.
It's against C-D's terms of service for us to give legal advice. I would suggest contacting an attorney or legal aid to help.
I would start looking for a new place ASAP, health first then legal matters later. Take a lot of pictures and evidence of the damages. Kick a55 and take names. Save every email, then if the landlord refuses to return the security deposit, then contact a lawyer.
Why do you need their insurance information? You should file a claim for the items lost against your renters insurance policy.
Ah sorry, that was because my insurance agent wanted it. They will do the normal insurance dance of trying to get their money + my deductible back.
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IMO, they should have been fully responsible for cleaning the apartment not you but I don't know if that's cause to end the lease. And be sure that the damage caused by the flood is documented in writing and with photos so they can't claim you caused the damage.
There are certain things they have to remedy after notice, or you can state the lease terminates 30 days after. Also the part I was talking about in the VA law says:
§ 55-248.24. Fire or casualty damage.
If the dwelling unit or premises are damaged or destroyed by fire or casualty to an extent that the
tenant's enjoyment of the dwelling unit is substantially impaired or required repairs can only be
accomplished if the tenant vacates the dwelling unit, either the tenant or the landlord may terminate the
rental agreement. The tenant may terminate the rental agreement by vacating the premises and within
14 days thereafter, serve on the landlord a written notice of his intention to terminate the rental
agreement, in which case the rental agreement terminates as of the date of vacating; or if continued
occupancy is lawful, § 55-226 shall apply.
According to that, we can just go. Only problem is we do not have the funds to do so - we'd be on the street.
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It's against C-D's terms of service for us to give legal advice. I would suggest contacting an attorney or legal aid to help.
Yeah, I should have realized that. I was more or less looking for ideas from anyone who may have gone through the same thing with their landlord.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VRE332
I would start looking for a new place ASAP, health first then legal matters later. Take a lot of pictures and evidence of the damages. Kick a55 and take names. Save every email, then if the landlord refuses to return the security deposit, then contact a lawyer.
I wish I could - same thing as above though, we don't have the money to get a new place. I had to file bankruptcy a few years ago due to being laid off, and so everyone wants 2x rent for a security deposit, and I do not have a credit card. That's usually good and I don't mind at all since I just use my debit card, but not in emergency cases like this.
Although - there was also something in the landlord/tenant thing that said we don't have to pay rent if the property has lost value. Not sure how I could combine that with getting us the hell out of here.. will try to find that section and see exactly what it says.
If there is mold in the apartment, that is a violation of virginia housing law and is an excuse to break a lease. First, take pictures. Second, you need to send a certified letter to the landlord telling them that the situation needs to be rectified (need to do this legally). They have like 30 days or so to rectify it.
Where do you live? I might suggest contacting the local government for help. Arlington, for example, has services for tenant help.
I've gone through this personally. Greedy millionaire lawyer landlords in McLean absolved all responsibility because i'm sure they were struggling to feed their kids.
If there is mold in the apartment, that is a violation of virginia housing law and is an excuse to break a lease. First, take pictures. Second, you need to send a certified letter to the landlord telling them that the situation needs to be rectified (need to do this legally). They have like 30 days or so to rectify it.
Where do you live? I might suggest contacting the local government for help. Arlington, for example, has services for tenant help.
I've gone through this personally. Greedy millionaire lawyer landlords in McLean absolved all responsibility because i'm sure they were struggling to feed their kids.
Ha! Yes, I'm sure they were I'm sorry you had to go through that - us little guys always get stomped by lawyers who twist the law that is supposed to protect us from things like this.
We've lived quite a few places in Virginia, all in Loudoun County. We are good tenants.. not loud, nice to our neighbors, clean extremely well when we leave, etc. I sometimes wonder if it even matters, because we still get screwed no matter what we do.
One of the places we rented in the past was a condo in Ashburn. I had never had such a frighteningly psychotic landlord. She even had her sister spying on us. In the end, it wasn't worth taking her to court for the part of our security deposit she kept, not only because dealing with her was so awful and it was better to just get the hell away from her, but also because she worked for a law firm and I'm sure they would have schooled her on the loopholes she could squirm through if we took her to court. That amount wasn't that much - this time it's a few grand that we're trying to make sure we get back when we leave. These people have an army of lawyers, but I'm still willing to try.. even though they'll be trying to do the same as your McLean ones. So yeah, we have to do it all up front and legal.
I do not see any mold yet. We have everything in the dining/living room boxed up and shoved up against the far wall because we can't set anything on (or sit on) the carpeting covering half the living room (and 3 feet into the dining room) - it just smells too bad. I think it's only a matter of time before it shows up, though, because they did not take out any of the wet drywall. I'm sure the insulation got sopping wet in there. We'll be able to see it when it does because all the furniture has been tossed and there is nothing in the area except for stained carpeting.
I will see if our local government has any help for us. Thank you for the suggestion
I would also still be very interested in a link to any VA health or housing law talking about grey water cleanup and if you need to treat it as black after 48 hours like the Healthy Buildings link in the OP. Or even if someone knows about disaster recovery, maybe there are online guidelines for the state.
Contact an attorney.
No one on this forum can give you any legal advice or even a hint of what *might* be legal.
It is also against the Terms of Service (TOS) on this forum to attempt or hint at giving any legal advice.
That's fine. It's also not what I'm asking for. As I've stated:
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I would also still be very interested in a link to any VA health or housing law talking about grey water cleanup and if you need to treat it as black after 48 hours like the Healthy Buildings link in the OP. Or even if someone knows about disaster recovery, maybe there are online guidelines for the state.
Just like the Virginia Landlord/Tenant laws are online, so could be disaster recovery guidelines or housing/health department rules or laws. Someone here may know where they are; my google-fu has failed me so I am asking for help.
And I can't call a lawyer. If I could afford one, I could afford to get us out of here right this second. So I'm doing all the research myself. It's up to me to find the relevant statutes, and I'm not asking for legal advice. Just some help finding the information. Government links/PDFs/websites, companies I could call, whatever. As stated:
Quote:
Does anyone have any familiarity with this type of thing? Or know where I can get solid answers on the black/grey water thing for Virginia?
Someone who does disaster recovery or maybe works for the Health Department would know where to find that information, which is why I asked if someone was familiar with any of this.
Personal anecdotes are also appreciated because people go through this sort of thing all the time, but it's fine if those are not given as they might be too close to the "hint" line. Instead, they may have suggestions, like contacting local government as in the reply above yours. And if you're referring to what was said about mold, that's in the Landlord/Tenant laws (PDF here http://www.dhcd.virginia.gov/images/...t-Handbook.pdf ), which I've gone over with a fine tooth comb (so I was aware of what needed done for that). But asking for the location of information online is not soliciting legal advice.
However, since you are the second person to say something about it, I'll try to revise the OP to make that more clear.
I wrote it when exhausted and apparently didn't get my point across well. I'm going to ask that the title be changed, as it's probably contributing the most to the miscommunication. "Help with legal matter" could be changed to the more specific "Help finding online legal information sources."
In the meantime, I've explained the situation we're in. This is specifically what I am looking for:
What I have:
VA Landlord/Tenant laws (linked in last reply)
One company's guidelines on dealing with a grey water flood (linked in OP)
What I need:
Location online of Virginia health/housing laws that deal with residential flooding and when/if/how it is to be fixed/cleaned, in particular grey water and how it is to be decontaminated; any mitigating circumstances like if the decontamination protocol changes if the water is left for __x__ amount of time (the company website linked in the OP is not law, and I need something official if possible)
Government/local (Loudoun County) /company/free resource websites that offer help/talk about lease/landlord/tenant issues. (Example: I'm currently searching through the NOLO site, there could be other good ones like this)
Even links to VA public records showing lawsuits dealing with landlords who don't take care of their tenants would be helpful, or if someone knows if a local library or courthouse has this information
Any other online resource regarding any part of the above situation that people can think of
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I'm sorry you had to go through that - us little guys always get stomped by lawyers who twist the law that is supposed to protect us from things like this.
