Report from a welfare queen.

This is part two to this post from a few days ago:

Two days after moving into my new apartment (older building, 1960s probably) the kitchen flooded. In my kitchen pantry it sounded like a waterfall inside the walls. The floor above duplicates the floor plan of my level. The laundry room backs up to my pantry, and in the laundry room above it the drain the washer discharges into was clogged. Took two days of roto-rooter to get it cleared. After getting everything mopped up they sprayed something to mitigate the odor. I waited to start putting things back in the pantry, just to be on the safe side. Good thing I waited, as I went in there this morning and found large mildew blooms on the wall and parts of the ceiling.

I'm thinking that they should be replacing the drywall, but management hasn't expressed any interest in doing anything but spraying something on the surface. This is especially frustrating for me since I moved from my previous place, where I'd lived for eleven years, because of mold issues. As it is, I wear oxygen for breathing problems, and I suspect this situation isn't helping any. If I could afford to move again, I would.

Compounding the frustration is that this apartment was approved by the Section 8 office, after they disallowed the place I'd found where such things weren't likely to happen (and that's a whole 'nother story). They were of no help with the mold issues at the old place, so there's not much point in contacting them about this present situation.

Part Two

So I'm sitting here at night, about 10:30, finishing up some emails and planning the unpacking strategy for tomorrow. I need to be here all day because they're coming 'some time during the day' to paint the pantry walls and ceiling with Kilz. Anyway, time for bed, so I shut down the computer and head down the hallway when I hear a weird noise. I turn just in time to see water pouring out of the ceiling fanlight over the table that is still stacked with boxes. This isn't dripping, it's a solid wall of water. I get buckets and wastebaskets under it and call the landlords. They come running over and help me get stuff out of the way. There's also water on the pantry floor, and it's coming through the ceiling in the laundry room in the hall.

At least this time it isn't sewer. We have hot water heat, and the unit upstairs sprung a leak, which explains why the water coming out of the light fixture was scalding hot. So they've drained the heating supply for the building, the plumber will be here around 4am. I'm thinking there's not going to be much sleep tonight.

Anyway, just thought I'd share this out in case you run into one of those types who believes that po' folks get everything handed to 'em on a silver platter. You can reassure them that the splendor in which we are so lavishly accommodated is delivered by clogged sewers and broken pipes. Sheeesh, you'd think we'd pick better places to live, huh.

:( I was once seconds away from being killed by a sheet of drywall falling from the ceiling because of a leak. At least the management co. got in there fast and repaired it right.

and I know going to health services usually does not help

There are days I want to do this

:banghead: as we as a society don't generally care.

especially with that amount of water coming down. Kilz is a primer.

Good luck!

I think the landlords tried to call the units lofts... but the building was a converted furniture warehouse from the turn of the century... there were cracks in the brick walls that we could see through to an outside courtyard. There was bamboo growing through the walls around a window frame. And, one windy October, the wind caught a skylight crack, and carried away a significant portion of that sky light. The landlords promised that they'd have some day laborers come and measure the broken skylight and have a new one made. Two weeks later, when it started raining, they were kind enough to send a day laborer with a tarp to cover the gaping hole in the roof of our "loft".
8 months later, with the tarp still in place, I happened to have a real estate manager who knew my landlords in my taxi. I told her the story... and after a few moments of her trying to process the incompetence, she said she'd mention it to the reps of my corporate landlord company at the party she was going to.
4 months later, the landlords actually produced a new skylight.
It was a good thing we didn't have to pay for the gas that was used to heat the space... 1 year with a tarp in place of part of our roof... good times.

Soon after we discovered that, if we didn't work the shower nozzles just right after a shower, then water would pour out of the wall and across our floor. Of course, we'd've never realized what was causing all that water to pour out of the wall if our neighbor hadn't noticed it in his own space and been so clear in his explanation of how to avoid the problem.

When we moved out, the building manager nodded a lot when I explained these details to her. I don't think she was really listening though. I still talk to an old neighbor. He doesn't mention that any work has been done to fix the problem... despite the unit being vacant for a couple of months now.
I feel sorry for the poor fools that wind up renting yet another space that the landlords don't want to bother doing any work on...

Matter of fact, nobody gets handed anything unless they're rich.

The people who need it the least, and who can most afford to pay for whatever they need, get all perks and benefits. :(

Meanwhile, the people who have the least, and who are most in need of help not only get the least of everything, we also often end up paying the most for it.

:(

And then there are far too many people out there ready to jump up and down, yelling and screaming that some poor person has something he or she somehow "doesn't deserve."

I could kill when I hear that kind of shit. :grr:

Granted, I was smoking a lot at the time, but it was a bad, painful burn and it lasted for days and days. I can't imagine what would have happened if I'd caught a cold on top of it. Most of my allergies are to chemicals, not natural substances.

Please be careful and I hope your living situation improves greatly, very soon.

Our hallway light kept getting dimmer and dimmer, and we never quite knew WHY. It was hard to notice because of how gradual it is, but when you turn on the light and it's a murky brown, you finally notice.

Well, this thing is pretty high up (it was in a stairwell) so we figured the bulb was just dying and left it. Well, a short few days pass... and suddenly water is pouring out of this fixture.

The neighbors had went on vacation, it turned out, and left their water running. Their hot water. I don't know how you can "forget" that your shower is going, but they did. And their apartment was full of steam - and this steeam had gone into the building's attic. condensed, and was flooding our fixture.

Weirdest damn thing I'd ever heard of.

Your landlord is clearly threatening your health if you already have respiratory problems and he's not gutting the walls to make sure there is no mildew or mold growing in there. :(

That is terrible that you have to live in those conditions.

I don't know where you live, but I hope you can find help. I hope you are documenting all of this with photos and any documentation you can. If you end up having to go to court to get a safe, habitable apartment you'll need all of that. You'll need to show exactly what the situation is/was and what the landlord did instead of what he should have done.

Please call Section 8 anyway. They might listen and do something. But they definitely won't do anything if you don't call.

Please be safe, and be well. :hug:

Landlord's son hooked up the water line to sewer line. Then said landlord tried not to understand what was happening so she didn't have to send out a plumber on an emergency call.

It was an older multi-apartment building and it flooded the lower units and basement laundry room. Place was eventually condemned and torn down but people had to move immediately in the middle of January and deal with trying to sort through belongings with that mess.

The landlord had the nerve to contact the tenants, now living elsewhere, the next month to try to collect rent for the place "because they had a lease".