QUESTION
Do we have a legal fighting stand point?
Asked on Nov 17th, 2011 on Landlord and Tenant Law - North Carolina
More details to this question:
Recently our apartment flooded with at least over 30 gallons of water. I (first witness) awoke to water dripping from the ceilings everywhere and 2-3 inches of standing water in the kitchen floor. I had rushed upstairs and notices that water was SPRAYING from near the base of the toilet in the upstairs bathroom. I was able to get it to stop. We had contacted the landlord representative (this all happened at 4 in the morning) and they really haven''t done much. All they have done is brought in carpet guys and all they have done is hooked up giant fans to dry the carpet. We spoke with the agent representative yesterday and they feel they r not responsible for the damages and they r claiming negligence on the grounds of a backed up toilet............................. they have not had a plumber check and they are basing this all of the words of a general handyman. They said all they plan on doing is painting over the watermarks which r everywhere and drying and cleaning the carpet.
1 ANSWER
Litigation Attorney serving Raleigh, NC
at
Burns, Day & Presnell, P.A.
Update Your Profile
The landlord is required to make the repairs necessary to keep the premises in a safe and habitable condition. If the landlord fails to do so, you have the right to either make the repairs yourself (and credit the costs of those repairs to your rent), or to move out of the premises and cease paying rent. However, you cannot continue to live in the apartment, not pay rent, and not do the repairs. Good luck to you going forward.
Answered on Jan 31st, 2012 at 1:28 PM