Yesterday evening, just as everyone in the country was sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner, I heard a strange noise in the bathroom and went to investigate, only to find it raining from the ceiling. I’ve had an occasional leak above my bathtub for a week(ish), and told my property manager verbally (and took pictures) and she said someone might come by to check it out. This unfortunately did not happen, and it escalated at the worst possible time. I managed to find a bucket, but before long it sounded like a faucet was running in the bathroom and the (albeit small) bucket was needing to be emptied every few minutes. Because of the holiday neither my super or my property manager were nearby, and when I was finally able to get a reply from him, my super told me he would help me in the morning. Fortunately my property manager was eventually able to send someone to the apartment above mine (currently being renovated, so no tenant, just a construction crew) and the water stopped.

Unfortunately, this took nearly 3 hours and my ceiling had already started cracking before the water had even been stopped. This morning, at about 4:30, I was awoken by a crash and when I went to investigate I found that the ceiling had collapsed. There didn’t seem to be much (more) water, so I figured it was safe to leave until my building sent someone over today to check it out. As I was writing this post however, I heard another, louder crash and found that the rest of the ceiling had given way, dropping a pipe (seemingly from the construction upstairs, but unclear) onto our toilet, which was now broken and happily contributing to the water damage itself. It took me a minute to realize where the water was coming from and that I could turn it off, so my bathroom is pretty swamplike now. I cleaned up the water that had spread out of the bathroom, but I don’t feel all that safe trying to clean the water inside of it, as two collapses doesn’t bode well. Hopefully that’s the last of it though, as you can now see clear through to the apartment above. My super is on the way to check it out, but what a nightmare!

Anyways, very long story short, this is our only bathroom and it is unusable. Fortunately, I was already planning to break my lease at the end of the year and found a new place for next month, but I haven’t gone through the formal lease-breaking process yet and I need to give 30 days notice. I would just pack everything up and leave right away, but I am also preparing to undergo bed bug treatments after a few suspicious bites, and if the inspection comes back positive that’s 3 weeks of treatment that needs to happen before I can remove my things. I have family a few hours away that I will likely move in with for the rest of the month, as staying in a hotel with my two cats and immunocompromised wife isn’t an option.

Do I have any steps I can take or do I just have to pay next months rent in full, despite an unusable apartment? I have lots of documentation, from the initial few drops, all through the incident yesterday, to the aftermath now. I live in a rent stabilized unit, if that makes any difference.