This is kind of long... bear with me. I know the rules say to keep it relatively short but I am super lost as to what my options are with this situation.

I currently live in an apartment complex in Los Angeles that is owned by a very money-hungry developer. If you have seen the monstrous faux-Italian fortresses surrounding DTLA--yep, I live in one. Anyways, on 6/4/14 at around 6:30pm, my roommate and I noticed that there was water damage on our ceiling. We immediately went to the leasing office, where we were told it "wasn't an emergency" and could wait until 10am the next morning. Some background--last year, I lived in an even newer apartment building and water damage from the apartment above us completely flooded a bedroom in our apartment. So, I knew something was up. Back to the current complex... Multiple attempts to get emergency maintenance to check out our room or at least to get security to check out the room above us failed. Nobody lives there, but you never know what could be going on. Fast forward to midnight, when brown smelly water starts leaking from our light fixture. At 1 am, emergency maintenance finally shows up and tapes a trash bag to the ceiling (not joking). At 10 am, the head maintenance guy finally shows up to assess the situation. He informs me that the apartment above me had flooded as a result of the apartment of it, and the water had soaked through the carpet, creating the damage in our room. He told me that the first person I complained to should have checked the room above mine (read: negligence on behalf of the property and/or contractor security guards). Had that been done, the situation would not have escalated to an actual leak in our apartment, nor would the water damage be as bad.

Fast forward to now. They have stuck a dehumidifier in our apartment in an attempt to dry the drywall. I have a couple issues with this: 1) This dehumidifier works by drying air and spitting it back out as HOT air. My cheap roommate turned off our AC for an hour and it rose to 81 degrees despite the outside temperature being 61 degrees. We cannot open our balcony because the outside humidity is currently at 83%. 2) IT IS SO LOUD. It sounds like I have a lawnmower going off outside of my door. I cannot sleep--this is ridiculous!

My questions: 1) Who is responsible for the utility bill? They want this thing to go 24/7 for the next 4 days or so. It's some huge industrial sized dehumidifier that is no doubt sucking up a bunch of electricity. Additionally, it's taking more energy for the AC to kick in since it is SO HOT. 2) Do I have to leave this thing on? As in, can they force me to? I literally cannot sleep. 3) They made us buy renter's insurance, but doesn't the liability fall on the developer/landlord due to the negligence on the contracted security agent's behalf? I had requested multiple times that he check the unit above us and he refused (mostly due to sheer laziness) despite the fact that the leasing office was still open when we first complained and he had access to a universal key. Head of maintenance confirmed that the situation would not be as bad had someone stopped the issue 16 hours before it was finally stopped (I mean, common sense tells you that too, but that is not their strength).

Thanks so much!!!