Water damage in a rented house

[Doozer]

So I get into work this morning, and one of my coworkers comes up to me and asks my advice. My company imported her from another country about 6 months ago, and so her and her family are renting a place. They've been taking great care of it, but yesterday her daughter left the faucet on in the bathtub, and ended up dumping a few inches of water over a good portion of the 2nd floor. So much so that it came through the ceiling in a few spots, dripping onto the main floor.

She has no renter's insurance, and because she's not used to wood-framed houses she's not aware of the damage that can be done when wood gets wet (rot, mold).

So, what does she do? Get it fixed out of her own pocket? Do nothing, and hope that it's ok until she moves out? Hope that the damage deposit covers it? Tell the landlord and risk getting a bill AND evicted in one of the lowest vacancy-rate cities in the country?

I think she's already decided that she has to get it fixed, but I'm curious if this has happened to anyone else (from either side of the story)

[joyridder]

She will be liable for all costs to fix the damage. She will probably have to pay over her damage deposit as it sounds like its going to be expensive. She needs to inform her landlord and make a plan to have the repairs taken care of.....
I have had situations when it clearly was a mistake and I have caused damage before, and had to pay for the costs. Its better to be honest and forthcoming with her landlord...

[ricosuave]

^
word

life sometimes sucks, and things like this happen, but in the end, honesty to the landlord is the best policy.

also, it does sound like a lot of water, but if you can get a dehumidifer in there and dry it out, the mold thing may not even happen, so she may just have to replace some drywall/paint.

[97'Scort]

Yup; renter's and homeowner's insurance is dirt freaking cheap compared to paying to have your entire floor replaced!

[Tik-Tok]

Tell her to sell her kid to pay for the damages.

Seriously though, she needs to tell the landlord, and get the stuff fixed.

Hmmm... not that I support insurance fraud or anything, but if she isn't a well off person, maybe tell her to get some insurance ASAP RIGHT FUCKING NOW, and report it in a week?

Oh, and mold really shouldn't be a concern on the wood frame, it's so dry in Calgary. Everyone is up and arms about mold this and mold that, when in reality, it doesn't happen all that often, it's usually only in places that have constant water seepage/damage, so one day of water shouldn't effect it.

[Doozer]

Originally posted by 97'Scort
Yup; renter's and homeowner's insurance is dirt freaking cheap compared to paying to have your entire floor replaced!

Yeah, those are no-brainers to me, but I guess when she moved here there were other things that she had on her mind.

Either way I feel bad for her because she's still learning english, supporting her husband and kids (the husband just has a menial-labour type job until he finds something in his field) and then something like this happens. It's a shame.

[Doozer]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
Tell her to sell her kid to pay for the damages.


I think at this point she'd be more than happy to do that.


Originally posted by Tik-Tok
Hmmm... not that I support insurance fraud or anything, but if she isn't a well off person, maybe tell her to get some insurance ASAP RIGHT FUCKING NOW, and report it in a week?

Hehehe .. I'm embarassed to say that I actually thought of that as well ... but as her manager (and a law-abiding citizen!), there's no way I could even suggest that.

[Euro838]

If it's a house, I'd check with the landlord because chances are, he will have insurance for stuff like this. Most landlords will carry insurance for fire, flood, etc. The only insurance they won't carry is content/tenant insurance. If she talks with the landlord, she may be able to get the insurance to pay for it except she'd be responsible for the deductible. It'll probably be about $1000 for the deductible but it'll probably be cheaper than the thousands of dollars it will cost to repair(depending on the extent of damage). A friend of mine had a similar problem where a water pipe leaked behind a wall and down to another floor. The cost to repair was like $5K. Hope this helps.

[phreezee]

50/50% bleach/water to get rid of the stain on the ceiling and apply new paint.

This is what my old builder did when the jacuzzi motor sprung a leak and came through the laundry/mud room.

Did I agree with it? NO.

But it did remove any visible signs of water damage.

[Doozer]

So I guess she talked to her landlord last night, who was very good about it. Apparently the landlord's husband is some type of contractor/handyman, and they completely renovated the whole place themselves before my coworker even moved in.

A small piece of the ceiling will have to be replaced, but they said otherwise the damage looks pretty minimal. Probably < $500 total, with the husband doing the work.

[arian_ma]

Good news for her and now the landlord knows he/she can trust the tenant.
:thumbsup:

[clem24]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok
Oh, and mold really shouldn't be a concern on the wood frame, it's so dry in Calgary. Everyone is up and arms about mold this and mold that, when in reality, it doesn't happen all that often, it's usually only in places that have constant water seepage/damage, so one day of water shouldn't effect it.

I would say it depends. If it only got on an inside wall, then chances are good you're ok. This exact thing happened to us (except it was a toilet tank that suddenly cracked). The insurers did NOT rip apart the wall to dry it -- that'd be stupid. If it got on the carpet, then remove the mouldings, pull up the carpet, and rent a big ass fan and dry it out.

The only concern would be on an outside wall. If it got into insulation, then that might take a long time to dry, and could possibly result in mold.

But yes, mold usually only results with persistent moisture, like the bathroom itself, grow ops....