Plumbing emergency, can't reach landlord - what to do?? pittsburgh

I live in an apartment complex and my rental agency's emergency voicemail box is full. (must. restrain. fist. of. death) Right now there is sewage water bubbling up from a pipe or something in the floor in my HVAC cabinet. The unit is in a closet that is in corner of my kitchen, along with my fridge. (It is directly across from my refrigerator, like 2 feet. I can't even open my fridge door the whole way.) I cannot reach anyone. The one 24/7 plumber I tried wouldn't come out without approval from the landlord...who I can't reach.

I'm assuming that I'm out of luck for tonight. But what should I do in the morning? What is the LL's legal responsibility to clean this up? This started last night, I heard water gurgling really loudly coming from the HVAC cabinet. Had a puddle of water on the floor this morning. Maintenance came out today to "fix" the AC and then told me to run it the rest of the night to dry out the cabinet. The cabinet had at least an inch of standing water in it. Water got under the wall, as well, and this wall is a shared wall with the entry hallway.

I've never had to deal with something like this before. This rental agency is a few short steps up from straight-up slumlords, so if there is a way for them to do the least amount of, and least expensive, work on this, they will. Is there anything else I need to do to document this? I took pictures as best I could. I have health issues so I am really concerned about mold forming after so much water has leaked in and around the cabinet.

Thanks.

Submitted September 01, 2015 at 10:48AM by cardinality00 http://ift.tt/1Kov0DL pittsburgh

[ADVICE] What can be done if you think someone is using your electricity? Is there a way to confirm our usage? pittsburgh

My room mate and I have been living in this apartment for 11 months, and are moving soon. At first I thought we were just using a lot of electricity during our stay, but it just doesn't add up anymore.

We recently got this mailing from Duquesne showing our usage compared to other households and it is worse than we initially thought. We are officially using double than any other household.

Both of us work at least 8+ hours a day M-F. We have a gas range and gas furnace. Between the both of us we use: (2) PCs, (1) Monitor, (1) TV, PS3, 20g fish tank, microwave, refrigerator, washing machine (dryer is gas), and a efficient space heater when it was freezing out. We don't leave the lights on or PCs running and even have efficient lightbulbs. But even during the summer our bill was $100+ not using any AC or heat at all.

I lived on my own for 14 months with all the electronics/aquarium accessories I am currently using now, and payed $35 during summer and ~$75 in the winter with a space heater running most of the time. My room mate has even less than me but yet we pay through the roof.

Which leads me to believe our landlord (who lives in the same building) is using our electricity. How can we confirm or test this? Can Duquesne come out and test? Are there 3rd party companies who assist with this issue? If we have been over paying, or supplying another person with out electricity, I would like to do something about it before we move.

I thought about shutting off the breakers in our apartment for a few hours and see if the neighbors lights go out, or if he complains or something. But this doesn't seem like the most efficient way to go.

Anyone have advice for this? I posted in /r/pittsburgh rather than askreddit because I figure someone might be more familiar specifically with Duquesne Electric.

tldr: i think someone is tapped into our electric, how to confirm or test?

mypoorelectricbill :(

Submitted March 27, 2015 at 07:34PM by MyPoorElectricBill http://ift.tt/1Eb1Nsm pittsburgh