We live at Gorman, our downstairs toilet is overflowing and it's saturday. This same thing happened yesterday and they fixed it. But now it happened again and our WHOLE downstairs is flooded! We called and left a message on their answering machine. Who else should we call?

We found out yesterday it's because our next-door neighbor is using paper towels for toilet paper. This is not just water that's flooding into our house.

8/23/2008 10:09:52 AM

i'm pretty sure that you can have it fixed and make the apartment complex reimburse you, but it would probably be an arduous process--you're probably best off having the complex do it if at all possible

[Edited on August 23, 2008 at 10:18 AM. Reason : http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-42.html]

8/23/2008 10:14:19 AM

ok thanks

8/23/2008 10:21:10 AM

What a crappy day

They should have an emergency maintanance number you can call - but I guess if its not on the message on the leasing office machine you may not have much luck finding it.

If you can't get up with the leasing office at all, I would have some place take care of that and then bill the leasing office, if that stuff stays for too long it is going to be a nightmare.

Just keep records and use student legal if neccesary.

8/23/2008 10:25:19 AM

apartment responsibility. i had a shitty apartment try to shirk responsibility for that. had to threaten legal action for them to own up.

it was a root in the drain that caused our backup.

[Edited on August 23, 2008 at 10:33 AM. Reason : sewage. eww. ]

8/23/2008 10:32:38 AM

NM, they called back! Some stuff may be ruined but it should be ok

[Edited on August 23, 2008 at 10:33 AM. Reason : ]

8/23/2008 10:33:07 AM

Quote :

"I'm worried that a lot of my entertainment system is ruined"

i hope you have renters insurance

8/23/2008 10:33:54 AM

call them and tell them that you are calling the city/inspector and your lawyer.

it shouldn't be backing up into your house. there should be a valve of somesort that prevents that, it's under a city housing code. if it's not there, it doesn't meet code, which means that they will be fined. make that a point, b/c they'll have to repair EVERY single unit to meet code.

that got my point across.

they are only liable for damage to their property. unless their negligence was SO bad (poor preventative maint) that it caused your property to be ruined. it wasn't the case for me, but you could push that.

[Edited on August 23, 2008 at 10:37 AM. Reason : renters insurance = good]

8/23/2008 10:36:47 AM

It's not backing up through the actual bowl of the toilet, but through where the base meets the floor.

Ha! It has been a shitty morning already, I wanted to sleep in.

8/23/2008 10:44:38 AM

i don't know about residential code, but commercial restrooms have backflow preventers to stop exactly what's happening. the only toilet that should be backing up is the fucking retards using bounty instead of charmin.

8/23/2008 11:01:08 AM

Quote :

"but through where the base meets the floor."

yes, i had the same situtaion. it's b/c of the missing valve. it's sewage and unless they call a restoration cleanup crew, it will be a biohazard. make sure they don't let their maint. people near it, they don't have the experience, nor training to handle it.

don't let them pull up any carpet and try to dry it using a blower, that'll just send dried sewage into the air.

when regular water leaks, that's one thing. if it's sewage, another ball game.

also, anything of yours that touched the sewage is now ruined. get some compensation.

[Edited on August 23, 2008 at 12:17 PM. Reason : f]

8/23/2008 12:16:04 PM

are you sure that its not just the bowl coming off the wax ring and leaking that way? turn off the water to your toilet and empty it and see if it keeps happening

8/23/2008 3:56:53 PM

it wasnt the wax ring, i had already turned the water off 2 days ago when i saw the toilet bubbling. It was just too much backed up for the complex and my bathroom was the closest to the clogged main drain

8/23/2008 4:56:34 PM

Same thing happened to my friend that lived on the newer side of the Gorman Street. GC just put fans on the carpet to dry them out. She had to really fight to even get the carpet replaced that had other peoples poo on it.

8/24/2008 12:48:37 AM

Depends if you took massive dump then CLEAN IT UP

8/24/2008 10:17:52 AM

NC real estate and property management laws place resposibility with the landlord for providing a safe and habitable premisis. This includes making repairs pursuant to the same.

You should notify them in writing of the issue. If they do not resolve it you can do constructive eviction and escape the lease without penalty.

Eitherway, document whats happened with pictures and some sort of written account, in case you need to have it later.

8/25/2008 7:52:38 AM

I agree with what everyone else has said:

THIS IS THE APARTMENTS PROBLEM, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN WONDER ABOUT THAT?

I also agree with the fact that you need to make DAMN sure they properly clean this shit up. Where's that crazy website of the guy who got the incredibly swollen lymph nodes because of the sewage backing up and getting into the air system? It got airborne and caused him EXTREME physical problems. I can't remember if it was real or not, but regardless this is a major health hazard and if they half ass it you MUST get the fuck out of there before you get sick.

Document everything, take pictures. Document who you've called and when. Document what was said. Make an appointment with Student Legal Services immediately and talk with them, no matter what the apartment says. It is also a good idea to contact someone who works with this stuff to find out what an appropriate way of handling it would be. That way when the apartment tries to dry out your shit filled home with fans you can get out of the lease and get them in a lot of trouble. If they don't care about risking your life and health then fuck them over to the highest degree possible. I think they probably failed to install those valves and I think you can get them on it, big time.

I think you also owe it to your neighbors to tell on this complex for not having the proper valves. First of all, if the valves aren't there, this could possibly happen to anyone in the complex, resulting in health problems. Another thing is that this could have (And probably has) already happened in your apartment or others and people may be living in apartments that already have flooded and been improperly cleaned. That means every apartment in there is potentially dangerous to live in and I mean VERY dangerous in terms of the health hazard.

[Edited on August 25, 2008 at 8:18 AM. Reason : ]

8/25/2008 8:15:23 AM

it's one of the few advantages to renting. when shit breaks, they have to fix it.

8/25/2008 8:33:07 AM

I lived at Gorman Crossings - this happened to us three times in a year. All they ever do is put fans under the carpet, your apartment smells like ass (literally) for days - they never once actually cleaned my carpet. When the lease was up we moved, the cheap rent just wasn't worth it.

8/25/2008 8:58:14 AM

^ same happened to me at my apartment in Cary. A pipe burst in the apartment above me and I woke up to it basically raining in my apartment at 3AM. Came home to fans under my carpet, which i had to leave for like 2 days. smelled like mildew pretty much the rest of the time i lived there.

oh, and they never fixed the water damage in my ceiling either

8/25/2008 9:18:57 AM

This week there was a rental house out here on the beach where the septic field collapsed. The back up into the house caused it to be uninhabitable. Right away those folks were moved to a different house.

The key word in presenting your argument should be habitability. The folks serving as your landlords have to have an nc real estate broker's license, and they pay close attention when someone makes that point.

When a dwelling is unfit for habitation, the tenant is allowed to dissolve the lease under constructive eviction rules. It's a last resort usually, but it is a trump card in the tenant's hand.

8/25/2008 9:11:57 PM

update?

8/25/2008 10:05:27 PM

Quote :

"This week there was a rental house out here on the beach where the septic field collapsed. The back up into the house caused it to be uninhabitable. Right away those folks were moved to a different house. The key word in presenting your argument should be habitability. The folks serving as your landlords have to have an nc real estate broker's license, and they pay close attention when someone makes that point. When a dwelling is unfit for habitation, the tenant is allowed to dissolve the lease under constructive eviction rules. It's a last resort usually, but it is a trump card in the tenant's hand."

This is the truth right here SON. DO THIS SHIT SON.


OH AND UPDATE US SON.

8/25/2008 10:10:59 PM

Who the hell uses paper towels for toilet paper??? How fat of a person is this neighbor?

8/26/2008 2:29:29 PM