Am I or landlord responsible? (Chicago, Oak Park: apartments, renter, insurance)

[sfcambridge]

Hoping you guys can advise me ... Sorry for the long post.

I just started moving into an apartment in Oak Park. Older building. Condo, that the owner is renting while he is overseas. He moved all of his stuff into the basement to store it while he is away. I am living part time between my old home, and new apartment, as I finish my move.

Over the weekend, the basement flooded. Each apartment has a storage unit in the basement. I am using the storage unit assigned to the apartment I rented. I just cleaned it and filled it with stuff 10 days ago.

It flooded - perhaps the worst area of the basement, since it is right by the door to the outside. Everything soaked. All of my moving boxes (I keep them all, as I move often and many are pricey/specialized/v.good condition) are wet and ruined - 7 wardrobe boxes, 5 large artwork boxes with special padding, dozens of large boxes/book boxes/glassware boxes/electronics/kitchen boxes etc. About 150 in all, neatly stacked side by side in good condition. All wet, and now starting to smell. Other stuff wet too - all luggage soaked (bizarrely, inside and out), some small furniture/items, and some personal items etc.. But I am more upset about the boxes. I have unfortunately moved a lot recently, and these boxes are specialized (many to the sizes of my items) that I have collected over time and are pricey/hard to replace.

The person I rented the apartment from forgot to leave my phone number with the building/condo board, so no one called me to tell me when the water started to come into the building. Ironically, I was spending most of the day Saturday at my father's house, cleaning out his flooded basement.

So I found out yesterday afternoon, when I found the note the condo rep left at my ?back door. More then 1 day after the flood.

The basement has flooded before - either 1 or 2 years ago. But no one told me.

The person who rented me the apartment stored all of his stuff on risers. I didn't notice this until the condo rep pointed it out. This tells me the renter knew this was a potential problem. Yet he never told me!

So curious what you think? Is this only my responsibility, or does the person who rented the apartment (or the condo board/building owners) have some responsibility since he didn't forward my contact info to the building - and I wasn't warned flooding was a potential problem? I asked the owner multiple times about "old building" things to watch for, but I didn't explicitly ask about flooding.

Or is it just my fault? I have never had a storage locker in a basement before, and in my rental contract it doesn't say anything about communal/condo controlled spaces.

Interestingly, last week I called my insurance company to start getting info on renters insurance but haven't purchased it yet. HOWEVER, the policy doesn't cover flooding anyway, so it wouldn't have helped.

The condo owner is in Africa, and may be difficult to reach. The rep from the building who left me the note told me the storage locker was not a building responsibility (even though the leak comes from outside of it....). He said "don't you have insurance".... but my apartment insurance would not have covered this.

Before I send an email to Africa, just wanted to know your thoughts. I think I want to ask him for some sort of compensation. I am even more annoyed because I chose an apartment that had a storage locker and am paying more for it... and now the locker will be empty because I have nothing to put there!!

Otherwise, I like the apartment, and the guy who rented it to me was very nice. Just a little absent minded.... I know he will feel bad about this.

[Nodpete]

I'd say it's your fault, I know these days everyone wants to blame somebody else for their problems, but it's up to you to think of all possible problems with storing things in a basement and to prepare for it. I'm sorry you lost so much. Hope you can rescue some of it.

[middle-aged mom]

No clue.

What caused the flood? If it rains hard enough, almost any basement takes on some water. Most folk do not store things they value in basements unless they are on platforms for this reason.

Who owns the storage locker, the landlord or the condo association?

Does your lease specifically include the storage locker?

Do you have renter's insurance that includes flooding?

[sfcambridge]

Well, I appreciate your thoughts. I certainly don't blame anyone for the cancer and spinal cord injuries in my family that have forced my moves/job losses. But this one irks me. If my landlord was protecting his own stuff, I feel he should have warned me....

But of course, what are feelings... not the law!

I'm sure a lot of people lost stuff.

[sfcambridge]

Hi middle aged mom,

The flood wasn't sewage. "water backed up through the rain sewer" is what they said.

No - renters insurance doesn't cover flooding.

I believe the storage unit is owned by the condo owner, and it is included in my lease.

Well, I am learning the hard way. Not my nature, as I try to plan for everything.

[chicagojlo]

Storing cardboard in a basement is always a bad idea. If you seriously had no clue that basements can get flooded, I don't know where you've been living. The landlord quite rightly didn't feel they needed to tell you something that should have been so obvious.

Get renters insurance ASAP, and don't put anything valuable in a basement again. If you have all this stuff you keep dragging around from place to place, you might consider renting a storage unit in a secured building until things settle down a bit more.

[Chummy Waters]

Maybe you can make a really cool paper mache piece of art and sell it for money to replace all your stuff.

[sfcambridge]

Chummy,

I already made a bunch of forts for the kids.


Yeah, so basements flood. I've always lived in apartments, and have never had storage space in the basement.

It turns out that I am at the low point of the basement. Minimal damage to everyone else - only my unit lost it all.

And again - the issue is that my landlord knew this risk. That's why he propped up his stuff. He just neglected to tell me. And the building didn't know how to contact me, because he never gave them my contact info.

Live and learn.

[chitownperson]

I think you are grasping at straws here. As stated, basements are prone to dampness and flooding, especially in on buildings and houses... this is pretty standard knowledge. The landlord probably didn't list flooding as a potential problem because there is probably a very long list of potential problems for older buildings, and flooding is in no way specific to older buildings.

FYI, almost everyone I know had there basement flooded during the flash flood a couple of nights ago, which is why I think it is unreasonable to for you have the landlord take the responsibility for this one. The water levels raised in a lot of peoples basements, not because there was anything wrong with their drainage system, but because the city cuts off their drainage system when rivers get too high... the water that would have ended up in the rivers ends up being flushed back in to buildings and homes. The alternative of leaving the drainage system open is the river overflows and mixes with sewage and then floods your basement... now I'm betting the first option sounds a whole lot better.

Not that landlords have not responsibility to the properties they rent out, but it's not his fault in this case. I'm sorry for your losses, but it's your responsibility to get typical things like home insurance that covers floods if you live in a humid place like Chicago... A lot of places that had well functioning drainage systems flooded a couple of nights ago.

[Peer79]

The flooding was 'an act of god' and not due to any sort of negligence on the part of the landlord. Unfortunately, you will have to accept responsibility for any losses.