Apartment clusterfuck
 

So a couple of nights ago, my girlfriend and I were woken up in our apartment at 4:30 in the morning by somebody buzzing our door. My GF gets up and it's the building manager, screaming and him-hawing about something. He's Serbian or some shit, so I can't understand anything he says. At this point, I think I'm dreaming, and let it go for a minute... but it persists, and so I get up.

Still coming out of my deep sleep, the dude starts yelling at me and I calmly explain that I don't understand and need a second to catch up. He says "come with me" in a loud voice and takes me downstairs. There's some water dripping down in the entrance vestibule that sits below us. He starts swinging this flashlight at my face and screaming "YOU BE TIRED?! YOU BE MOVE OUT!" Everytime I opened my mouth to ask what the problem was, he just said "SHUT UP" and kept repeating the previous line. He started to get pretty scary, and I felt threatened, so I went back upstairs. My GF later went downstairs to talk to him.

So apparently, somehow someway our bathroom sink was turned on a little, and the drains here suck and the sink overflowed. Our bathroom had some water standing on the floor (it's fine now, no permanent damage), but it dripped into the entrance vestibule to our building, which sits below our bathroom. The paint on the ceiling is damaged in a couple of spots. We don't know if one of us left the water on (unlikely) or if our cat somehow got on the sink and pushed the handle for the hot water (never happened before, but the only thing we can think of). Do faucets ever turn themselves on?

So now the building claims we're on the hook for damages. What damages yet, they haven't specified. If it's just a new paint job for the ceiling, I'd pay for it just to shut them up and get it over with, but something tells me they're not going to let it go just like that. Our rental agreement and the Chicago Tenant Bill of Rights says we're only on the hook for "negligent" damages. Don't know if there's anybody here who knows if our situation is legally an "unforseeable accident" or "negligence". Also, does anybody think it would help the situation to report the building manager for his menacing, unprofessional behavior? I mean, that night I was ready to call the cops he had me so frightened. The only reason I didn't is we didn't know if there was any permanent damage that happened or if it would just blow over if we let it go. Should I call the police? Someone give me a hand! Thanks Netphoria

cliffs notes to thread....

lol YOU BE TIRED YOU BE MOVE OUT

good luck with this shit

You should move in with Toby

lol, yeah. the next day that had me laughing pretty hard. he talks like that all the time "i be put in AC unit next week" "i be fix the door" You'd think after living here for years, he'd fuckin figure it out and drop the "be"

i bet you don't have renter's insurance, either

Would renter's insurance even cover something like this? Wouldn't it cover the same things that would fall under "accidental" and thus I wouldn't be held liable for anyway?

Mine would.

See this is when it is good to be an old person.

Because young people are given less benefit of a doubt in these situations? Or because old people are more likely to have enough foresight to get things like renters insurance?

More the latter.

also we make our girlfriends and their cats live elsewhere

Good call. Her and her messy-ass cat have been pissing me off as of late. My girlfriend's first instinct was to blame me for leaving the water on, like I'm some sort of retard who hasn't been using faucets since he was old enough to wipe his own ass. We've been living together for about three years, and I think it's really taken its toll, and I'm about ready to run. So if we end up being charged for some ridiculous water damage, I think that will probably be the straw that broke this camel's back in this relationship. This fuckin cat throws up on my guitars, my clothes, my desk, everything.

Problem is, I don't really have family to fall back on in Chicago, so if we decide to split and I have to find a new place, it's gonna be rough.

keep her chained to a radiator when she isn't at work

I hate to rub it in but Nimrod makes a good point that anyone who doesn't have the sense to get renter's insurance probably isn't mature/smart enough to be living on their own.

ok mistake #2, never ever be financially dependent on someone you're dating. if you can't afford to immediately move out and get your own place, get a roomate instead of living with a girlfriend

Well that's an over simplification. Everybody's gotta cut the cord from mom and dad at some point, and you have to kind of make your own mistakes to grow into a mature/smart person living on their own. That said, I had always been told that renter's insurance dealt with acts-of-god type things like "apartment burns down" or "apartment destroyed by tornado" and not things like this. If I had known that, I would have totally been all over it. Of course it's something I probably should have had anyway, since it's not like my apartment is invulnerable to fire/tornados.

Well hopefully the damage is minimal and you will have learned the lesson the easy way. In any case you seem to have a pretty good idea of what you need to do with the GF.. if she is driving you that crazy get the hell outta there.

leaving a tap on - if that's what it was - isn't really accidental. Your going to have to give them some kind of idea of how it happened eg. my aunt got her ring caught in her curtains and there was a large tear and this was covered, she expalined what had happened.

The threshold for negligence is higher- you left an electric blanket on and it sparked. You have to explain the circumsatnces surrounding the incidentm but as you were both sleeping its going to be tough. I'm not registered in chicago so don't legally rely on this advice.

As for damage - if it's just a paint job then that's okay but he may try at get you for water damage etc in the ceiling. But if the drains are crappy, then they may not be up to code. So if he hits you with a bill for damages you can ask to see the last insepction. Also anything you pay for you need to get it signed and notorized that you will not be liable for any more damage bills in the future.

As for the girlfriend after 3 years if you're over it then it's over. You don't want no cat puking on your guitar.

Well, in my reasonable estimation, the only thing I can think of is that the cat jumped on the sink and turned it on. Neither of us would leave the tap on. It's pretty loud when it's on, so it would be almost impossible for us to be in the bedroom trying to go to sleep, across from the bathroom, with both doors wide open and not hear it and realize something is wrong. But since we were both asleep when it turned on, what could I possibly say? I can't say with any certainty the cat did it, but if it did, is that an unforeseeable accident?

Because old people are less likely to blame the cat if they leave a faucet on.

lol

EQUITY IS DA BOMB!!!

it's still your civil responsibility and insurance would cover if you had any.

also teach your cat not to go in the sink. i bet his hair is what's clogging the drain.
i bet you post pictures on websites like these : http://catsinsinks.com/

I did the same thing once, some taps just don't turn off when you push them back into the off position to a reasonable degree. I don't think your cat would have done it, I mean unless you have a super sensitive tap.

so in my opinion, it seems unreasonable...but then again you could have a big bathroom counter and huge taps that get in the way of cats walking in and around the sink.

I leave the tap on sometimes, no worries.

wow I can't believe i just discussed something like this on the internet.

:think:

i would not have followed that guy anywhere.

see what their exact complaint is and what they are expecting from you.

they shouldnt have had a broken drain in there. but you should have reported the broken drain so that something like this wouldnt have happened if the water was left on by mistake.

i'm not sure who is responsible for this. check your lease agreement of course.

you could make the argument that they had a broken sink and that's why they have damage now.

dont let them push you around. but always make sure when something is broken to get them to fix it right away