Our lease is up June 1, and my wife is due to give birth June 30 so it's not a good time to move. We also have a toddler of nearly 2 years. We like our apartment and we had planned to stay, but then we had a real crisis and now we're not sure what to do.
Last night a valve on our toilet broke off and flooded the apartment while nobody was home. Our helper found it when she got home with our kid. She turned off the water main but there was still an inch of standing water in the apartment.
After I sent photos to the property agent who represents the landlord, she sent up a plumber to fix the valve, but she flat-out refused to do anything about the standing water. I even went down to her office to talk to her in person after I got home. She refused, to my face, to come look at the damage or to arrange any cleanup.
The helper and I spent the next several hours mopping the floor and putting furniture up on blocks. Doesn't look like very serious damage to furniture or electronics, but we're livid at the lack of support by our landlord and property agent.
We want to stay, but we don't want to deal with that agent anymore. And we're worried that if we complain about her directly to the landlord he'll either tell us to take a hike or he'll jack the rent up so far we can't afford to stay. We've never dealt with him directly, so we don't really know what he's like.
Technically we could move, but we really don't want to, given our kid situation. Plus, like I said, we like the apartment overall, and the neighborhood.
What to do? Should we suck it up and see what happens? Complain to the city? Write to the landlord and state our position regarding the agent? Should we start talking to lawyers?
Any and all advice welcome. Thanks!