My living room floods regularly!

[Natalia Collini]

Two weeks ago my ground level apartment flooded due to heavy rainfall. I figured this was coming. Every time it rains hard the water does not drain properly into the two drains off my porch and my porch disappears under water, then the water starts coming in under the sliding door. Then two weeks ago it more than came in. It was halfway into the living room and it seeped in to the bedroom under through the outer walls as well. Our king size foam mattress soaked up all that water and got ruined. We contacted the property managers, they sent someone out to clean the carpets and we got an industrial fan for two days to dry out the carpet. They told us they would call a contractor to figure out the problem, but warned us that it would take time because they have to get bids in. They gave us a couple sandbags to set outside our door. We bought ourselves a new mattress (and a waterproof mattress cover to put on like a boat for future protection.)

On Sunday it rained and flooded again. Both bedroom and living room wet. The sandbags did absolutely nothing. The next day was Memorial Day so the best the maintenance staff could do was bring in a little shop vac to try and get out some of the water and there was a discussion of trying to shore up the outside to keep this from happening again. Last night, it rained again and even more water came in than did on Sunday. It hadn't even finished drying yet! My apartment is starting to smell like mildew and my kids are playing in this damp living room space. The property management team is starting to get really aggravated with us for coming in with every new rainfall and my understanding is that the worst of the rain season hasn't even hit yet! 

I've been looking to see what rights I have as a tenant in this situation and I'm slightly confused. I plan on calling my community legal services to get some assistance in the next step, but I had wanted to post on here and see what others have to say. What can and should I do? I've been reading about withholding rent and using it to potentially pay for the repairs to the structure but I'm a little confused about when that part happens. Our rent is due today so would that mean I have to pay today and then wait another 30 days (and who knows how many rainfalls) before I can actually do something about this?

The last conversation I had with maintenance about the flooding was more along the lines of "we are getting ready to tear this building down" rather than "we've heard back from a couple contractors and are getting ready to remediate the issue" so it doesn't sound like there are any solutions looming on the horizon. 

Help, what can we do? I don't like living this way! This is actually worse than the substandard housing that I had grown accustomed to while living in Alaska!

[Phil Earley]

The goal should be to shake hands, part ways,  and wish each other well.

Talk to the property manager and come to a reasonable solution to move prior to the lease ending without penalties under the circumstances presented here.   

Moving out without an agreement will come back to bite you and the management not allowing you to move out will probably come back to bite them.   

An amicable win win solution sounds like the best bet for all parties.