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I live in apartments & the people above us had toilet issues so bad it flooded their bathroom which in turn leaked down into my bathroom. I let the management in the office know what was going on first thing in the morning & they said they would send someone over to clean it & I told them I had work but gave them permission to enter.
Eight hours later I returned from work & no one had stepped foot in my apartment, leaving the urine & other liquids that were leaking dry up on my counters, bathtub, toilet, and floors. My bathroom smelled like a urinal (there are two women in my apartment so there is no excuse for my bathroom to smell like a men's public restroom). I cleaned it up and went back over to inform them that the ceiling of my bathroom had a square indention where it looked like it had water damage & would soon fall apart. They were about to close & were getting ready to call the maintenance guy but said they would let the ceiling dry up before sending somebody because it being wet would cause too much of a mess.
Two weeks went by and they sent nobody.
Saturday morning I woke up to use the restroom & there was water all over my bathroom floor once again. I looked up at my ceiling & there was a bubble of liquids that formed that was dripping onto my floor. Again smelling like urine which in turn dripped onto my face/body/bathroom counters and floors etc. I went to inform the management once more but they were on lunch break. I called the emergency number for the maintenance & he came in about 2 hours, as he said he was not on the premises.
He drained the liquid & when I asked him why he didn't come sooner, he informed me he never received a work order for our apartment to fix the ceiling. He also let me know he was going to inform management of tools & such that he would need to patch up my ceiling & said I could not use my restroom until Monday, since they were about to close & were closed the next day.
Monday passed & nobody showed up to fix it. Our apartment is 2 bedroom 2 bath but the bathroom that was being fixed was not the master bath, which is not mine so I would be barging into my roommates room/bathroom to use hers since I was told not to use mine. I made arrangements to stay elsewhere until Monday so I wouldn't have to do so, when I was told it'd be fixed.
These liquids have been sitting in my bathroom floor & have yet to be cleaned up, along with my ceiling being fixed.
Is there anything I can do other than tough it out & curse the management under my breath? Such conditions have, of course, been an inconvenience but also unsanitary. As my bathroom has, once again, dried up urine & toilet water everywhere.
A colleague suggested having rent be taken off for the amount of days I have not been able to stay at my apartment, but I'm wondering if they are not going to allow that, since there are technically 2 bathrooms. Is there a department I can call to take further action? Can I ask to be charged as a 2 bed/1bath for these days I've been out of my restroom? Especially since they are not doing anything about it?
Is there anything I can do other than tough it out & curse the management under my breath? Such conditions have, of course, been an inconvenience but also unsanitary. As my bathroom has, once again, dried up urine & toilet water everywhere.
A colleague suggested having rent be taken off for the amount of days I have not been able to stay at my apartment, but I'm wondering if they are not going to allow that, since there are technically 2 bathrooms. Is there a department I can call to take further action? Can I ask to be charged as a 2 bed/1bath for these days I've been out of my restroom? Especially since they are not doing anything about it?
Grab your lease. Find the section that deals with maintenance request. There is probably some specific wording that requires you to place your request in writing and or do this and that. Did you do exactly what it states in the lease for a request?
If you did not follow the specific requirements of the lease, next grab a copy of your state's landlord tenant laws and look for the same topic. Does the state law mention a specific way to handle these issues. If so, have you done them?
If you have not followed the lease or state law, you will have a hard time should you withhold rent. Let us know where you stand with the requirements of the lease and/or state law. AS an FYI, you have many laws on your side, but you are letting the property managers walk all over you like some worn discarded doormat. You need to stop being weak and stand up for your rights.
... next grab a copy of your state's landlord tenant laws and look for the same topic. Does the state law mention a specific way to handle these issues. If so, have you done them?
You'll likely find your state laws linked in the first "sticky" on this forum.
Grab your lease. Find the section that deals with maintenance request. There is probably some specific wording that requires you to place your request in writing and or do this and that. Did you do exactly what it states in the lease for a request?
If you did not follow the specific requirements of the lease, next grab a copy of your state's landlord tenant laws and look for the same topic. Does the state law mention a specific way to handle these issues. If so, have you done them?
If you have not followed the lease or state law, you will have a hard time should you withhold rent. Let us know where you stand with the requirements of the lease and/or state law. AS an FYI, you have many laws on your side, but you are letting the property managers walk all over you like some worn discarded doormat. You need to stop being weak and stand up for your rights.
Thank you very much! I will use this information next time we have an issue. Seeing as we more than likely will. (We've had our share of problems with our maintenance/management lack of communication & sense of urgency.
Went home to get ready for work (as I am staying elsewhere for now) & maintenance came to tell me he is receiving materials tomorrow.
Called them again straight away & manager said she was under the impression the ceiling was worked on as she called the maintenance that first day I notified her. She prorated rent $60 off, better than nothing. & whaddya know, here comes maintenance knocking on my door, with said materials that were allegedly not in yet. Saying he was going to set up for tomorrow & he would come in first thing in the morning.
I leave for work & come home 8 hours later & lo & behold, he ended up working on the majority of it today, leaving just shellacking (not sure if I'm using the correct word here) for tomorrow.
Invite the news media over. Shame the landlord. Perhaps call code enforcement. But the news media is typically far more effective if they cover the story.
Well, even though you had another bathroom to use, you are paying for a 2 bathroom place. So, it would be fair to figure out the percentage of the rent for the square feet of the bathroom, for instance, and request a rent abatement of that percentage off your rent for the days you couldn't use a bathroom you were paying for.
Like you said, because you still did have working plumbing otherwise, you probably couldn't have moved because of the one non-working toilet. But, sewage/urine in an apt would possibly be a health code violation.
Often health codes have a separate law, not found in the landlord-tenant law, that says that if a tenant has to be moved out due to code violations, that the landlord has to pay for their moving/hotel costs. This would be under your city code probably.
At any rate, I think you should ask for more off your rent, using the "lost square footage" that you're paying for argument (assuming that turns out to be worth more than $60.
If it were me I would be on their ass every single day.
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