Help. My upstairs neighbor flooded my apartment. Lease Experts?
I rent an apartment, and the renter upstairs had a problem with a dishwasher (don’t ask, I don’t get it). She flooded her apartment, but most of the water came right down into my apartment, damaging the walls and the ceiling. The drywall in my kitchen came down.
My landlord has said he will take care of things, but what obligation is he under, and what am I entitled to? He will need to tear down, drywall, sand and paint. Will I need to pay rent while construction is going on?
Interesting that no one is answering my question about what obligation the LANDLORD has.
Tags: apartment, dishwasher, drywall, landlord, obligation, paint, renter
They ARE answering your questions. The landlord will be fixing the apt. Period. You are obligated to pay your rent. Period Other than that, the landlord doesnt owe you anything. If you have renters insurance, that will cover any damages to your personal property. The landlord is not responsible for your possessions nor does his insurance cover it. It only covers the building. If it involves you having to move out for a while, your rent will be prorated for the days you are out of the apt while he fixes it. Thats it.
Absolutely you will need to continue paying your rent. Your landlord already said he would fix the damage. Granted you have some room to squawk if he doesn’t get around to fixing it for months but why would you think this absolves you from your obligation? Don’t you expect your landlord to live up to his?
The only exception to this is if the damage was as such that you had to vacate the premises due to the property becoming uninhabitable. A damaged wall and some ceiling tiles don’t constitute that kind of situation.
Did you loose any personal property as result of the flood? If so it may be covered under the landlord’s property insurance or your renter’s insurance. You do have renter’s insurance don’t you?
You definitely want to keep paying your rent. Just because something happened that is out of the landlords control does not mean you should not have to pay. Things like this happen, and yeah it may be an inconvienence for you but believe im sure your landlord is not happy about it either. If you quit paying, then he’s not gonna want to fix your problem. He will simply kick you out then take care of it.
You do not state if you live in apartment complex where the landlord owns the unit above you are a Condo complex where all units have different owners.
If the landlord owns both properties and maintains insurance on the property his policy may cover the cost of replacement of any items of yours that have been damaged. In a kitchen though, I would imagine that most of the appliances belong to the landlord. Either way, the insurance company will most likely go after the upstairs tenant as it sounds like it was negligence on her part that caused the flood. If you have renters insurance (which I highly recommend), your policy would most likely cover the costs for any damage to your personal items then they will go after the upstairs tenant.
if it is a condo then the same thing I talked about above holds true except that there will be one more layer involved to include the owner of the upstairs condo.
Either way you will still be responsible for rent during the time that construction is happening. There is most likely a habitability clause in your lease but unless the entire kitchen will be unable to be used the apartment is considered habitable.
Good luck!