Damage from over flowing toilet
Tenat on floor 2 had toilet overflow, dripping water into apartment on floor 1. Toilet had not been an issue before.
Floor 1 tenant wants to be compensated for his mattress. He has no renters insurance.
Is this the landlords responsibility?
This story takes place in NYC
Does the upstairs tenant have renters insurance? It's possible that policy would include some property damage coverage.
Otherwise, yes - It's the landlord's responsibility. These things happen all the time. Clogged toilets are a normal part of being a landlord and the cost of doing business.
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@David Broomfield
In most locations you are not legally responsible for personal property damage which is why they should have renters insurance. Now it’s up to you if you want to come out of pocket or check with your insurance to see if they will cover it.
They offered him 300 dollars, and was told the bed cost $2500.... six years ago.
Feels like the tenant is trying to get a new mattress.
I figured I would turn to BP to see if anyone knew or had experience with this.
Similar post on AVVO stated was from the tenants perspective and the lawyers response was "Sue, but would likely not prevail."
David Broomfield - From an insurance point of view, no, neither you nor your tenant are responsible/liable for the loss. The burden to prove that you or the tenant were negligent/liable in this loss would be 100% up to the person down stairs to prove in court. I doubt that's going to happen! Also, what hard evidence/proof would they have? Now if you feel you should help out with this, and are okay to do that, go for it! Regardless of what you do, you should in "no way" feel pushed or obligated to pay a certain amount of money for the damaged mattress (or any other items that aren't yours).
As Jeff mentions above, this unfortunately happens quite often whether you're talking about a rental property or a homestead. It can happen anywhere. Ultimately, the person who owns and is responsible for insuring certain items, will also be the party responsible (at the time of loss) to file a claim for their damaged items under their insurance policy. The owner down stairs "should have had renters insurance"! If you really wanted to be ugly, you could point out the fact that they were pretty "negligent" by not purchasing renters insurance to protect their property. To me that's more negligent than something getting a clog in the toilet and not knowing anything about it until it was too late. Just because a toilet has been clogged before doesn't mean your negligent when/if it clogs again. I wonder how many times a toilet has been clogged in a home built in 1920's? LOL! All joking aside, you take a gamble when you don't buy renters insurance. You take an even greater gamble when you also don't financially prepare for a loss, knowing that you don't have renters insurance. Renters insurance is dirt cheap too, so it's harder for me to sympathize with the person down stairs in this scenario. Good luck, and sorry for the issues for both parties. Hope this helps!
I remember when the same happened to me with a tenant. It was completely my fault because the roof had issues. So I offered to pay her for the mattress and she thought that she was going to rip me off when I told her to send me the brand of the mattress. So, not only she sent me the brand of the mattress but she found an old receipt from a furniture store, and then we noticed that the brand name was not the same as the mattress she had at home. So that wasn't good. The tenant was mad at me because she was demanding to fix things in the unit and we were fixing, but it got to the point where it was too much for me. Section 8 had a deadline that if the things at the unit were not fixed by a certain day, then they wouldn't renew. What she didn't know was that the Section 8 inspector told me that if I wasn't going to fix the apartment, then to send her 30 day notice to vacate. I sent her a certified letter asking that I want the apartment vacated. The tenant had the audacity to tell me that she never got the letter. Mind you, she did sign the certified letter. So to make the story, at the end, the tenant was asking us if she can stay a 5 more days and we can deduct it from the mattress. I agreed, and the tenant vacated and my husband lived happily ever after!
Quote from @David B.:
This is why Tenants should have renter insurance. It's not your fault, unless you knowingly refused to fix the toilet.
If they want compensation for their $50 mattress, tell them to talk to the Tenant upstairs that caused the damage.
Not an attorney but don’t believe a landlord is legally responsible for tenant’s personal belongings. Outside of that, you decide if you want to replace the mattress or point your tenant to the lease language and the need for renter’s insurance. I see this often with garage doors closing on cars in larger developments. The owner isn’t necessarily responsible and the driver should file a claim with their insurance but sometimes it makes sense just to pay someone to buff out the scratches