![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gementIt comes to my attention from other people's journals that we really are experiencing more rain than usual (1.88" instead of the average 0.85" so far this year, according to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
marginalia), which explains the FLOODING. (My sympathies to lunar__angel whose basement was also discovered full of water this morning. Tis the season.)
I don't think I announced it the first time, but my poor Jason, who bravely moved out of his sanctified single-bedroom apartment to try communal living, has the one room that floods. Not that he's been sleeping in it anyway, but it's psychologically jarring, for obvious reasons.
October 1, immediately after he'd gotten around to moving an empty bookshelf into the room to claim the space, there was a heavy rain and ten gallons of water entered the room. Two inches deep in the middle, it was. It turned out to be coming from the garage-adjoined wall, which does not actually join to the floor! There's a gutter between the rooms, and it filled with water. There is also water bleeding from the cracks in the garage floor.
The Oct 1 problem was resolved by routing out the sewer line, which was root-clogged. Issues identified at that time: Water through cement floor of basement, 4' section of sewer line consisting only of roots, sump pump flushes water into back yard (6' from the basement steps), buried PVC pipe with open end by Jason's window is some kind of sewer overflow line that sprays poo into the windowwell when it's backed up.
We left the room empty until Oct 15 to make sure it didn't flood at the next heavy rain. Then we moved everything in. No further problems observed until New Year's Day, 2006 (which is why I didn't make it to Ivo's party). Not the ten gallon madness of last time, but enough water to wet the rug and laundry on the rug, and to warp the base of his OED which was sitting neatly by the bookshelf.
Soooooo we moved all the important books out of the room and made sure anything damageable was up off the floor and put the dictionary under several other heavy books to straighten it out and wrote an immediate note to the landlord. The garage floor is bleeding water again, by the way.
This morning, the new puddle: 6" wide, the length of the room. The landlord's coming over to look tomorrow afternoon.
So the really pertinent question at this point is, what are tenant rights in this situation? The landlord's a good guy, and I know that he'll try to fix this, but Jason has so far been pretty shafted in terms of being able to live happily in his room or safely put his things in there or otherwise treat it like a bedroom.
What are the rules on a room being considered "unlivable," and when it's one bedroom in a four bedroom house is there a recognized size of rent cut? I tried researching online and have come up SUCK. Library answer services don't provide legal advice, though I'll ask them anyway. I am mostly wailing for emotional support, but if there are any answers out there too, they'd be appreciated.
marginalia), which explains the FLOODING. (My sympathies to lunar__angel whose basement was also discovered full of water this morning. Tis the season.)I don't think I announced it the first time, but my poor Jason, who bravely moved out of his sanctified single-bedroom apartment to try communal living, has the one room that floods. Not that he's been sleeping in it anyway, but it's psychologically jarring, for obvious reasons.
October 1, immediately after he'd gotten around to moving an empty bookshelf into the room to claim the space, there was a heavy rain and ten gallons of water entered the room. Two inches deep in the middle, it was. It turned out to be coming from the garage-adjoined wall, which does not actually join to the floor! There's a gutter between the rooms, and it filled with water. There is also water bleeding from the cracks in the garage floor.
The Oct 1 problem was resolved by routing out the sewer line, which was root-clogged. Issues identified at that time: Water through cement floor of basement, 4' section of sewer line consisting only of roots, sump pump flushes water into back yard (6' from the basement steps), buried PVC pipe with open end by Jason's window is some kind of sewer overflow line that sprays poo into the windowwell when it's backed up.
We left the room empty until Oct 15 to make sure it didn't flood at the next heavy rain. Then we moved everything in. No further problems observed until New Year's Day, 2006 (which is why I didn't make it to Ivo's party). Not the ten gallon madness of last time, but enough water to wet the rug and laundry on the rug, and to warp the base of his OED which was sitting neatly by the bookshelf.
Soooooo we moved all the important books out of the room and made sure anything damageable was up off the floor and put the dictionary under several other heavy books to straighten it out and wrote an immediate note to the landlord. The garage floor is bleeding water again, by the way.
This morning, the new puddle: 6" wide, the length of the room. The landlord's coming over to look tomorrow afternoon.
So the really pertinent question at this point is, what are tenant rights in this situation? The landlord's a good guy, and I know that he'll try to fix this, but Jason has so far been pretty shafted in terms of being able to live happily in his room or safely put his things in there or otherwise treat it like a bedroom.
What are the rules on a room being considered "unlivable," and when it's one bedroom in a four bedroom house is there a recognized size of rent cut? I tried researching online and have come up SUCK. Library answer services don't provide legal advice, though I'll ask them anyway. I am mostly wailing for emotional support, but if there are any answers out there too, they'd be appreciated.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-01-10 10:47 pm (UTC)If you still have Rick's email, give him a shout as he keeps pretty up to date on what a tenant can and cannot do.
If you don't, shoot me an email (ukpyr@earthlink.net) and I'll give it to you.
Heck, shoot me an email anyway so I have your current one.
ps: good luck with the icky sore.