On March 21, I came home to my apartment with a cones and tape around the concrete slab walkway to my apartment. Apparently, the slab had fractured and was beginning to sink. I have not been able to inhabit my apartment since.
From what management has communicated to me, a metal support tress broke, causing the concrete to sink and fracture. This slab does not support the floors of the apartments, but due to the danger the slab poses, the complex was not going to let us inhabit our apartment (this affected 6 of the 10 units in the building). They told us they expected work to be finished and for us to be able to move in on Wednesday, April 5, because it would take a week to order the parts and another week to do the work.
The apartment complex put us in a hotel at their expense and is not charging us rent for the time we've been displaced. However (and I concede I could be emotional and biased), I feel like they are not doing enough considering the circumstances.
- After giving an initial expected time of April 5 (or sooner), it appears they did not start work until April 4. They have said now we can move in on Friday, April 7 at 8 p.m.
- The apartment is not paying for a hotel on Friday, so people will have to check out of the hotel by 11 a.m., but won't be able to move their stuff back into the apartment until 8 p.m.
- They are providing no reimbursements for increased mileage (the hotel is 15 miles west of the apartment complex, putting residents toward the outskirts of the city). This has added 10-15 minutes and 15 miles each way to my daily commute.
- We are receiving no reimbursements for utilities despite the fact we are paying for cable, internet and electricity while not being able to use them. Our electricity bill should be lower, but it's not like we (I have a roommate) unplugged the refrigerator before we left.
- Originally they were going to put my roommate and myself (we are not a couple) into a one-bedroom hotel room before we made a fuss about it and they relented, getting another room.
- My food expenses have gone up immensely since I am eating out for every meal. The hotel has a microwave and small, two-eye stove. I understand this probably isn't really an argument, but just trying to include everything.
I think that's about it as far as complaints I have go. The office has been incredibly unhelpful throughout the entire ordeal, not communicating with residents, not informing us that work did not begin as scheduled (by nearly a week), and have let residents get about 20 minutes each to pack for a two-plus week stay in a hotel.
As for what I've done, I contacted my insurance agent to see if my renter's insurance would provide any benefit, but since nothing happened to my actual apartment, and none of my possessions were damaged, the policy can't help. I also sent an email to the parent company two days ago with no response.
I've been so stinking mad throughout this whole ordeal with the increased costs, the uncertain living situation (are we moving back this week? Next week?), and the general unhelpfulness of the ownership.
My TL;DR questions are: do I have any legal recourse at all since they aren't covering my increased expenses? Would it be helpful if I can rally the other displaced residents to join suit? Am I just stuck in a crappy situation that I'll have to tough out?
Thanks.
Submitted April 06, 2017 at 09:14PM by LeOKthrowaway http://ift.tt/2oNwDTh legaladvice
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