Flooding apartment???

Question

I live in Jacksonville, Fl. where tropical storm Fay has been hanging out for the past almost 2 days. My apartment has flooded, it is in a basement. The water is leaking in from corners where the floors meet the walls. My sleighbed legs are soaked, couch, rugs, etc. We have reported it to the land lord twice since it began this morning, the best he has done to fix it is let us borrow a couple towels because we have used all of ours and half our clothes to block out water. Is this considered an "act of God" that no one can control, or was the apartment not built to sustain water? What should we do??

Answer 1

Flooding during a hurricane is an act of god.   No matter how water tight a home may be during a hurricane with the high winds and excessive downpour it is likely that a home will sustain damage.

IN order to re-coup your losses file a claim through your renters insurance, it should cover any damage caused by flooding.

Answer 2

This is the purpose of Apartment Owners Insurance/and contents.

The landlord is only responsible for structural defects or damage.

A basement is subject to all that you are experiencing in a storm.

Sorry isn't much comfort but all that I can do.

Bear in mind that you are not much above sea level and heavy rains have nowhere to go quickly.  I lived there once.

In Galveston now.  Same problem.

Answer 3

Any structure can flood at any time, and during periods of heavy rain, structures that don’t normally flood can just because the ground is so waterlogged.

Your landlord probably has insurance to cover his property, and hopefully you bought renter’s insurance for yours.  If you don’t, salvage what you can when this is over, and get insurance for next time.

I don’t know what you want your landlord to do. He can’t exactly control the rain.

Answer 4

Unless you have flood insurance you are screwed. What might happen though is if the governor has it declared a disaster by the President then FEMA will come in. Take photos of everything that you lost and make a note of what each item costs. Receipts will help but not necessary if you have good photos. They will reimburse you so that you can replace the items. Take pictures now and after. I went through the same thing a few years ago with hurricane Ivan. I live in Ohio. That storm came up through here and just stopped. All it did was go around in circles for 5 days right over the Ohio Valley. It rained steadily and rather heavily at times for 5 days. Your landlord of course is responsible for furnaces,water heaters,etc. You know. things that were already there. You are also going to need cleaning supplies that they usually provide to. Red Cross and Fema will be distributing that stuff at certain places for free. If you haven't had a tetanus shot lately they will be giving those out as well. good luck.

Answer 5

Do you have renters insurance?  Also "act of god" is just a tool used by the insurance industry to get out of paying claims But if your an atheist you can say you don't believe in god.  Your landlord isn't responsible for you belongings.

Answer 6

It's an act of God.

Flooding happens when the ground cannot take in the water from rainfall or runoff.

I you posted that water had ALWAYS come in, and was just worse this time....then that is negligence on the landlord's part.

But since you have never experienced flooding before, and a basement is below ground level, then it's an act of God and the LL isn't responsible.

NOBODY'S home is built to sustain water during a flood, that is why people take out insurance to cover it.

Your LL is probably scrambling like everyone else to keep the water out....b/c companies that specialize in flood damage are slammed when a natural disaster happens.