Tenant slips and injures knee during a flash flooding

[Julie George]

Hi all!I would like to get some advice regarding landlord/tenant responsibilities. Maybe some of you can shed some light on my situation. Thanks in advance!

I am a landlord in Chicago and own an apartment unit in the basement floor of a 3 story building. A few nights ago, there was some crazy flash flooding that occurred in the city causing the sewages to be backed up and flooding in basements of several neighborhoods. There are two basement apartment units in the building , including mine, both of which became flooded that night.

Since then, the water has all been cleaned up and the unit is certainly livable. I am currently in the process of filing a claim with my insurance company to get the water damages assessed and repaired. During the night of the flooding, my tenant had mentioned to me that she slipped in the water and hurt her knee. No other details were provided regarding the injury. She asked today about my insurance policy and name of my agent so that she can file a claim as well due to the injury. She has been a very gracious tenant and I've really enjoyed having her in my unit and I am choosing to believe that she isn't just trying to gouge me here so I would like to help her in a reasonable manner . Some other details are also that her lease is expiring at the end of this October month and was planning on moving out then.

In my homeowners insurance policy, I do have "Medical payments to others - each person $2500" listed as being covered. I would like to go about filing a claim with my insurance for my tenant's injuries but wondering if there's anything I should know in advance ? I've done some research of my own and don’t believe I would be personally or legally be bound to her injuries as I don’t think there was negligence on my part with this situation, but it does appear that my policy can cover this situation. I have had some experiences in the past where I have tried to leverage my own homeowners insurance policy to file a claim (non-medical) for my neighbor's home due to an incident and my insurance company shot it down due to varying fine print in my policy that they pointed out. Before I try filing a medical claim, any advice from any out there or other things to look into? Thank you!

[Lynn McGeein]

Instead of filing a claim, I would call my agent and let them know that your tenant is saying she slipped in the water and hurt her knee, ask if this is something you need to be concerned about and if you're covered for it, and see what they say. I'm not sure why it's your responsibility, and possibly her renter's insurance or medical insurance should cover it instead.  I'm not a lawyer, no legal advice, but it's not like you left a sidewalk icy for days and she slipped on it or a loose railing that you never fixed.  There was an emergency situation that you didn't cause and that you had no warning was going to happen.