Property management negligence

[Preetha Dutta]

Hi , Recently I was staying in a condo and due to condos management negligence there was a flood of hot water in my appartment. Thankfully this happened during day time . If this would have happened in the night we could have suffered third degree burn or could have died too. It was due to their negligence in maintenance we had suffered huge financial loss too and still in trauma . Please do tell us what we need to do

[Joe Splitrock]

@Preetha Dutta when you say 2-3 feet of hot water, I am just wondering where did the hot water come from? That is a lot of water and would take a big pipe. To fill a 500 square foot room with 3 feet of water (which is waist deep) would be over 11,000 gallons. That is enough water to fill a decent size swimming pool. Hot water heaters generally hold 40-80 gallons. It sounds like a central boiler pipe burst, but I can't image there is thousands of gallons of hot water in a system like that. 

Replacing water pipes is not routine. Based on what you are saying, they were proactively replacing pipes, but is sounds like they had not gotten to your unit yet. It is likely not practical to just replace every pipe at one time. It is common when updates are being done to work through on a schedule. If it is a central boiler system, that is used to heat the property. Shutting it down for days or weeks could be problematic.

Renters insurance should cover your belongings and if you didn't have renters insurances, I would submit the request to the management company. I would reference the other incidents as their knowledge of a problem that they didn't address.

I would not focus on what "could have happened" but rather what did happen. You didn't get physically harmed and belongings can be replaced. Focus on getting restitution for lost property. 

Anyone who has been through a flood or fire has been through a traumatic situation, but whether that emotional damage entitles you to compensation is questionable.