[Brightside63]

So my daughter moved to Royal Oak and rented a darling house in town and over the last month after a few days of rain, the house had standing water in the basement. The laundry area is in the basement of this 1920 Bungalow rehab. When she contacted the landlord, she said, oh, that's happened before, it will "go away" in a few days. There is NO sump pump, only a floor drain. My daughter is also having trouble with her allergies particularly when she's sleeping. I am worried about mold! And she is thinking of breaking her lease and moving. Is flooding common in this area- Royal Oak? I visited and it's a great town.

Worried Mom

[djmilf]

Floods do happen, but usually due to failure of the local sewerage department, look up the Metro Detroit flood of August 2014.

My basement in Berkley (next to Royal Oak) gets a wet floor because poor landscaping next to the foundation allows a pool of water to form during rains. That outside puddle seeps through the basement walls, leaving puddles that run to the basement drain. Yeah, I gotta fix that.

When you say "standing water", how deep are we talking?

[Brightside63]

I was not there but she said it was several inches. It receded a couple of days after the rain stopped. From the smell of the basement and the burning of my eyes, I think this has been an ongoing problem in this house. The basement sink was black with mold, as was the inside of the washer. It all just screams mold & neglect by the landlord. My daughter is arecent college graduate and inexperienced in home rental. Has previously lived in apts. I think the rent was low for a reason and she learned an invaluable lesson. Renter beware. She is new to MI and we were unaware this area floods.

[djmilf]

Sounds like it's not just rainwater, but an actual sewerage issue - not a flood issue.

There was an actual flood in the Royal Oak area in August 2014, with basements getting several feet of backed up sewer water when the pumps failed at a local sewer pumping station. I doubt that your daughter's situation is shared with her neighbors, so it's the landlord's problem to fix.

If the landlord isn't addressing the issue, contact the Royal Oak building department, document the issue that's occurring, and walk out on the lease. The landlord will be immensely p!ssed off about it, but he deserves to get grief over this - it's unacceptable.

[Geo-Aggie]

Could be one of any number of things:

1. Royal Oak has what is known as a "combined" sewage system. This is a feature of old infrastructure. it's not necessarily bad, but nobody would do it this way today. Essentially the stormwater sewer and the sanitary sewer (waste water) are in one combined pipe. This all feeds into a wastewater treatment plant where it is treated. This is fine 99% of the time, but during heavy rains, sometimes this can back the sewers up. If there is no backflow preventer on the floor drain, sewage will gurgle up through the drain. It's pretty nasty. This is a bad situation. A plumber should be able to install a backflow preventer to fix this issue. This is a moderate cost problem that the landlord should be responsible for. Could be this. It was a huge issue in 2014 flood that djmilf references.

2. Royal Oak is also primarily built in clay-based glacial deposits. These drain poorly. Homes built in the 1920s are going to have block wall basements, often with small cracks. If no sump pump or drain tile is present the water will seep into the house and have to filter through the drain. I had a 1920s colonial in Royal Oak and this was an occasional problem, but it was never more than a small, maybe 1" wide, stream from the walls to the drain and it would never accumulate. This is super common in the area and very expensive to fix, but based on your description, I doubt it's this.

3. Royal Oak has beautiful tree-lined streets, but again, homes are old and often have vitrified clay sewage pipes. The pipes can get root infiltration into them and become bad at draining, or even become saturated with groundwater. During a large rain event the groundwater may be getting into this, be restricted by roots, and backup into a home, mixing with any effluent (sewage) being produced by the home. This is gross. This should probably be looked at by a plumber. It could be as simple as running a roto-rooter tool down the sewage pipe and wasing out any roots. It would cost like $150 to fix if this is the issue.

Rent contracts in Michigan do tend to favor the landlord, but the landlord has to make a "reasonable effort" to re-rent the place, which is great since Royal Oak is a hot place to live. When I broke contract (9 months into 12 month contract), I told the landlord a month in advance. They had to relist the place. It rented within a couple weeks and I was off the hook. If your daughter wants out, tell her to notify the landlord ASAP that they need to relist the property, also have her document why - because quite frankly she shouldn't have to pay to live in sewage. There are renter protections against this. Your daughter can then be on the lookout and when the place gets rented, she can rent a new place. Royal Oak is indeed expensive, but renting in Madison Heights or Clawson may save a few bucks while still being close to the amenities of Royal Oak. Ferndale and Berkley are also options, but probably won't be any cheaper for a rental.

[craig11152]

If it came up through the floor drain its definitely raw sewage....at least in part. I am no lawyer and have not been a renter in 25 years but I have to think if there is raw sewage in the basement you can get out of a lease.

[Coldjensens]

When we first moved back to Michigan we rented a house. Sewage backed up into the basement just after my family arrived and before i got there. OUR 9 year old daughter had invited all of her new classmates over for a birthday party that weekend. My wife called the landlord appalled by the poop al over the basement floor. Her response: "Oh just throw some bleach on it and let it dry up, then you can just vacuum it up, that is what I always did." Apparently it had been going on for year and years.

We hired people who came in in haz mat suits and cleaned and sanitized everything then took the cost out of the rent (it was about $300 I think).

We told her we were not going to live there with poop coming into the basement and she had someone come replace the sewer lead,so we would stay. It was pretty expensive and she was mad at us from there on out. She was mad that we woudl not just throw bleach on the poop and vacuum it up - that is what everyone does.

Not me.

[Brightside63]

Thanks so much everyone. She did indeed get out of her lease & the house was shown & rented to another unsuspecting tenant. I just advised my daughter to get out and don't look back. The problem is not corrected- but it's not her house nor her problem. A life lesson for her. Not everyone is honest or nice, especially when it comes to money.

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by Brightside63

Thanks so much everyone. She did indeed get out of her lease & the house was shown & rented to another unsuspecting tenant. I just advised my daughter to get out and don't look back. The problem is not corrected- but it's not her house nor her problem. A life lesson for her. Not everyone is honest or nice, especially when it comes to money.

Thank you for the update.