Sewer Back-up ~10k in Damage

[Caleb Gray]

Hello BP!

I was on vacation out-of-state last week when every investor's vacation nightmare happened: My tenant called and told me the unit was flooding (being destroyed). I called Service Master and they were able to start working in a timely fashion thankfully. Service Master determined the cause of the issue was the sewer system being overwhelmed during a recent storm where 2-3 inches fell in an hour. The unit does not have a sump pump and it appears only one of the drains had a backwater valve, but I don't even know if it worked correctly. 

I started checking into options to cover the damages and repairs, but right now I'm coming up empty, and the bill is going to be 10-15k even if I do a majority of the repairs myself. I'm just getting started in my investing career (this was the first property I purchased, less than a year ago), and I probably have just enough between my savings and a loan against my retirement account, but that would wipe out everything, even the emergency fund in case of a medical emergency or car emergency, so I'd love to not have to drain it all. Here's what I've looked into so far:

1. Home insurance - unfortunately, mine did not include flood or sewer backup, so my agent told me there's nothing he can do.
2. Attorney - I asked him if there was anything I could do to make the city cover it since this was a public infrastructure failure. He connected me with a guy from the public works, but that guy just told me my town has no funding for anything like this because Illinois sucks (my words, not his). I'm not sure if there's any legal action I can take, but I plan to talk to him tomorrow about it.
3. Home warranty - I'm checking into this now, but I don't think I had my seller purchase a home warranty upon closing

Has anyone else dealt with something similar and found other ways to cover the damage other than swallowing the huge bill?

Thanks,

Caleb

[Daniel Hyman]

Caleb Gray l

Sounds like a real nightmare. Sorry you have to deal with this.

Are you completely certain that it was the drain? I know someone that this happened to, who did not have flood insurance. Nonetheless, he was able to get the agent out there to inspect. Turns out it was a chimney which, years ago, had some work done without having tiles replaced. Somehow, that caused the flooding to leak into the basement. In any event, the agent worked with him, and was able to have the policy cover the damage.

You might want to see if the agent can come out and inspect.