Water Damage and Black Mold - discount on rent? (lease, tenant, square footage)

[chippy83]

I am currently renting a 5 bedroom house in California which is managed by a reputable property management company and the homeowner is new to the home rental scene. A few days after the first rainfall of the season I noticed standing water in the garage. Upon further inspection I found a large area of wet carpet in my daughters bedroom which happens to be above the garage. I contacted the management company promptly and they contacted the home owner to investigate and repair any damage. Turns out that the roof had not been properly maintained and water was not draining properly causing it to seep under the roof tiles and into the walls. The roof was repaired and there has been no sign of leaking sense. The homeowner hired a company to repair the carpet. When the carpet and carpet pad was pulled back, a large area of the subfloor wad water damage and it looked like mold was growing on the subfloor and the back side of the carpet. The homeowner hired a general contractor to remediate the suspected mold. After the remediation was done the subfloor still looked like it was covered in mold. At my request, a home inspector (who is also certified to conduct mold tests) tested the air and the surface and confirmed that high levels of black mold were present in the air and on the surface of the subfloor. I was instructed to removed all items from my daughters bedroom and wash them, including all clothing, bedding and other fabric items such as stuffed animals that were in the room, including clothing and items that ware stored in her closet and dressers. (And holy-moley my daughter has a lot of clothes and stuffed animals.) A professional restoration company was hired and a portion of the wall and ceiling were opened up exposing more water damage and mold. The restoration company has sense removed all the damaged materials and removed any surface mold including the use of two air scrubbers which ran continuously for one week. The area has been retested for mold and I am confident that the tests will show that the mold has been removed. This all started on November 1st and the work is still ongoing. The mold test results are due back today and if they are favorable, the restoration company will turn off the air scrubbers and remove the plastic from the room (her bedroom looks like the scene from E.T. where he was quarantined in the house.) Then the owner can start the process or closing up the walls, painting, and replacing the carpet. This whole process has already taken 5 weeks and I imagine it will take another one or two weeks to finish the job. During this time my daughter has been sharing a bedroom with her sister.

With all that being said, is it reasonable for me to ask for a discount on the rent for the time that we have not been able to use the bedroom that I have been paying to use? Not to mention the fact that I paid for those two huge electricity sucking air scrubbers to run continuously for a week? And if I do, what portion do I ask for? 20% because its a 5 bedroom house or do I calculate what percentage of square feet the bedroom is and base on it that?

I don't want to come across as a greedy ungrateful tenant but at the same time I feel like I should not be required to pay 100% of the rent if I was not able to use 100% of the house due to something that was not my fault/responsibility.

I would love to hear from people who have been in this situation before and how they handled it. Also, if you are a landlord and have had a similar situation, how did you handle it?

Thanks in advance!

[mathjak107]

as judge judy says . you are free to move .

[Ultrarunner]

Did you put in a claim on your renter's policy?

This will often expedite things.

If you are inclined to move there may be grounds to break the lease.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by chippy83

..........20% because its a 5 bedroom house or do I calculate what percentage of square feet the bedroom is and base on it that?........

Unless you have been locked out of the garage, living room, dining room, kitchen, family room, all the bathrooms, laundry room, stairway, and the driveway and yard, you did not lose 20% use of the house.

You can take the total square footage of the house and figure out what percentage the square footage of that one room is. Your landlord remedied the problem immediately, (and I would guess at a very large expense). So he doesn't owe you anything, but it never hurts to ask, as long as you ask politely.

You can try putting in a claim with your renter's insurance, except that I don''t know what damages you can ask for. Maybe the cost of doing all of that laundry-- for which I feel a great deal of sympathy for you. That's a lot of laundry.

This is where it is an advantage to be a tenant. You did not have to deal with that extensive repair and you didn't have to pay for it.

[KaraG]

We had a main sewer line back up in the 5 bedroom house we were renting in California. The owner had to have the front yard torn up to get into the sewer pipe to remove roots, plus have a restoration company come in and clean, replace, repair, dry the first floor.

We emailed and asked if we could be reimbursed for the higher electricity bill for that month as well as 4 hours of our labor to clean up the initial back up. Ugh. She agreed, no problem, and we deducted it from our next rent check. I'm sure that was the smallest bill she had for the whole debacle.

[Lacerta]

We've had 2 insurance claims this year where the owner's policy (not the renter's) covered the FULL rent for the time that work was being done (actually one covered the full rent and one covered everything but $25). Even though the tenant remained in the house during the work. But they don't volunteer that information, the property manager/owner/disaster cleanup/whoever is working with the insurance company has to request it.

I would absolutely ask for a discount. You may not have lost the use of 20% of the house, but you did have the huge inconvenience of having a mess as well as people in your house all the time. I don't think 50% off is unreasonable, and I say this as a landlord and property manager. We gave free rent to our tenants for the time major work was done.

But both of those tenants behaved like normal people who understand that things happen, and were polite and accommodating to let us get the work done.

On the other hand, we had another claim where the tenant was a total jerk about the whole thing. First they reported water damage. Then after we looked at it and reported it to the tenants insurance company, and scheduled the adjuster to look at it, the tenant said there was no damage and threatened to report us to the insurance company for filing a fraudulent claim. They wouldn't let the disaster relief cleanup people in for 2 days, during which time, the problem got worse. Once the work started, the tenant wanted 24 hour notice every single day on exactly what work would be done the next day, and if we failed to give it, they wouldn't let the workers in the house. They refused to pay any rent without even asking at all. We didn't even bother asking the insurance company if they would pay anything on their behalf. People who are jerks do not get my above and beyond effort. We also told them they had to move so we could get the work done (which our lease gives us the right to do in the case of insurance claims, and which was true, since they wouldn't let anyone in).

My point is, it sounds like you have been cooperative. Landlords appreciate that and should be willing to work with you. You could mention that many landlord policies have rent coverage, and see if they will ask on your behalf. Both times we asked this year, the answer was yes, and the tenant got at least 1 free month.