Flooding in Rentals

Do you live in Redding or Shasta County? Has your rental house or apartment been affected in any way by all of the rain over the last couple of months? Has your rental house or apartment been damaged in any way by flooding? If so, we would like help lay out the responsibilities of landlords versus tenants in the case that flooding occurs.

When it comes to responsibilities, it is the landlord’s responsibility to take care of and maintain the property in ways that keep the tenants feeling safe and content. Maintaining the property includes keeping up with health and safety codes as well as maintenance and repairs.

So let’s get to it. Let’s say your rental house or apartment is flooding because you have a leaky pipe. If that is the case, your landlord is responsible for repairing that pipe and any damage to the home that the broken pipe caused but is not responsible for reimbursing you for any of your possessions that may have been damaged if that leak caused flooding. Number one recommendation is to obtain Renters Insurance.  Renters Insurance protects you and your belongings in these types of situations.  The landlord could be responsible for giving a pro-rated rent credit due to the property being either partially or completely unusable.

So what about if your rental house or apartment has flooded due to harsh weather conditions? Does that flooding damage fall on you as a tenant or does it fall on your landlord? As far as weather damages go, a landlord will always be responsible for any kind of damage made to the structure of the property unless it was caused b the negligence of the tenant. So if your house or apartment has flooded due to weather conditions then the damages made to the property would ultimately fall on your landlord and your landlord’s insurance.

If your rental house or apartment has flooded due to weather conditions, it is important that you notify your landlord immediately.  You may want to follow up the notification in writing and keep a copy of the notification for yourself.

If your rental house or apartment has been damaged in any way due to flooding and you would like more information on your rights or how to best handle the situation, feel free to give us a call at Authority Property Management! We are property managers in Redding who have years of experiencing doing property management in Redding and all over Shasta County, and we would love to help you in any way we can! Give us a call at (530) 410-6085.