Burst Water Pipes in a Rental Home
My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Ohio
I will attempt to make this as concise as possible.
Other details are below, for context where required.
· At what point should I consider contacting a lawyer?
· What blame do we truly have in a burst water pipe event?
· Should we even consider petitioning for recompense of purchased repair equipment, or personal effects?
· What sort of Lawyer should we regard? ACLU, or something more immediate?
· Does this sort of situation demand ASAP, or is waiting on something like the ACLU acceptable?
I am sorry for the breadth of this, but I am admittedly worn now from lack of sleep
and panic. Thank you very, very, very much for your time and consideration / opinions.
Summary of events :
My room-mates and I reported a leak from our radiator at 4am, soon as found.
The building sent out a repair-man who turned the water off entirely, and left,
claiming he would fix it later on, which he did, some 14 hours later.
The problem is this. His turning the water off resulted in the pipes freezing and bursting.
Once turned back on, the water sprayed through multiple lines, and at that
point had bulged a break into the outer-wall, as well as flooding our apartment
and those below us.
Since this event, the management has blamed us religiously for the break,
given we have not now nor ever heated the apartment, due to low income.
Nor were we ever given any amount of information suggesting we should do
so for any reason.
Now we've been served with a 30-day remedy notice, blaming us for all damages.
We've lost roughly $3,000 in possessions. Since the event the management has
been badgering us, yelling at us ( quite literally ), blaming us, threatening that
we've broken city ordinances ( which I cannot locate any of ) and so on.
Furthermore, they have accused us of being horders, given we could not move
all of our possessions out of the apartment for immediate repair, given we have
no place to put them. The management at this point told us to throw possessions
out to speed the process, glibly informing us that we would be compensated for
absolutely nothing lost either, given it was entirely 'our fault.' All stories given
by management change from ' It is your fault ' to ' we are dealing with this in
several other apartments right now, we know what we are doing.'
Were this not enough they demanded we work to shop-vac all possible liquid up,
claiming they would normally do it, but they found our dwelling to be impossible.
While not clean due to post-holidays, it is far from slovenly. We were often told
" we will contact you with further instructions " only to be left waiting for 6 hours
or more, then berated for not doing what they wished without instruction.
The 30-day remedy is no trial as the place was dirtier than typical, and can be
fixed easily. What concerns are the blames of all the damage entirely to our fault.
I am left wondering if they will attempt to make us pay for it, on top of all of this.
Additionally they asked if we could start spending the nights else where, moving
our possessions out, and became irate when we responded we had no other place
to go.
Re: When/Should You Contact a Lawyer [Burst Water Pipes ]
Turning off the water is not the cause of the pipes freezing. While if the water was on and people used it occasionally it may have not allowed the water to freeze since it is more difficult to freeze moving water, the real reason the water froze is the pipes were not adequately warmed.
Re: When/Should You Contact a Lawyer [Burst Water Pipes ]
Since their radiator was leaking I assume "turning off the water" meant "turning off the hot water heat."
Re: When/Should You Contact a Lawyer [Burst Water Pipes ]
You did state something that is odd. You said you never heated the space. If you mean you were in control of heating the place but due to inadequate funds, never spent any money to heat the space, you may very well be liable for the damages to the building.
As as to your damaged posessions; if you had insurance, make a claim. If you didn't, you are likey out of luck. Based on your description so far I'm not seeing where the landlord would be liable for your damages.
- - - Updated - - -
Quote:
Quoting
flyingron
Since their radiator was leaking I assume "turning off the water" meant "turning off the hot water heat."
I agree but the later statement of never heating the place suggests possibilities that would make that irrelevant.
Re: When/Should You Contact a Lawyer [Burst Water Pipes ]
Absolutely correct. We did not heat the place before-hand, either. The
maintenance-man did turn the radiator's water supply off, but it had never
occurred to any of us to turn the heat on for the night. The maintenance
man himself noted it was cold, commenting of as much, before he left. I
had thought if heating were necessary he would have commented, or we
may have received a missive of some sort.
From what I have gathered from you all thus-far, it seems that was an erroneous
assumption, sadly. Thank you very much for your individual time.
Re: When/Should You Contact a Lawyer [Burst Water Pipes ]
We've just recently gone through a Polar freeze (even in the deep south) where places like Ohio have been below zero for the past several days.
You believe you would have to be TOLD that heating is necessary in such type of weather?
Gail
Re: When/Should You Contact a Lawyer [Burst Water Pipes ]
Quote:
Quoting
gail in georgia
We've just recently gone through a Polar freeze (even in the deep south) where places like Ohio have been below zero for the past several days.
You believe you would have to be TOLD that heating is necessary in such type of weather?
Gail
I am still confused about one thing though...if the water had to be turned off to the radiator, how could they have heated the space?...at least during the time when the pipes actually froze?
Would the argument be that enough heat would have been retained during that 14 hour period to keep the pipes from freezing had they unit been adequately heated before hand? I don't see how that's possible when it was as cold as it was.
Re: When/Should You Contact a Lawyer [Burst Water Pipes ]
"I am still confused about one thing though...if the water had to be turned off to the radiator, how could they have heated the space?...at least during the time when the pipes actually froze?"
Quite true...although the OP have also claimed that they have "not now or ever heated the apartment". They then mention "it never occurred to any of us to turn the heat on for the night" which would imply there was some type of heat source available to them.
Gail