If you read it they got a notice the previous week and sounds like they were offered hotels. The workmen should have done some door knocking before they started work. The staircase collapsing was more concerning to me. that takes a lot neglect I would think.
Your honor we gave the adequate notice and offered to pay for hotels while we fixed the stairs but they didn't move so we didn't have a choice but to trap them upstairs. I'm sure that would go over awesome :)
This would be a dream lawsuit. How hard would it have been to prefabricate the stairs on site, and at least put in temporary access each night after work? You have a duty as a landlord to provide safe housing, and they did make an attempt to mitigate, they just needed to do a better job. Have someone go door to door and document each unit you contacted.
Yep, some smart tenant will seize the opportunity to play the litigation lottery and file. Landlord will stop work on property, be tied up for years in court. Tenants will be homeless and the property will sit empty for years. Gotta love the system.
Obviously if one receives a letter informing them they will be relocated to a hotel and they do not leave as instruct it must be due to the fact that they could not read the letter. I suppose it could be assumed the tenants are too stupid to follow instructions but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and attributed it to illiteracy.
I know right? And keeps getting better!! Just goes to show how some people are excellent at making money but are seriously lacking in empathy as evidenced by how they regard their fellow human beings!
The OP gave the sound bite version of this as is typical of the news today. No details just how terrible! Then we go directly to take the landlord to court. geez
What can we learn here.for .the landlord... deferred maintenance is bad. Verify tenants know what is happening. Not clearing the apartments before starting work is not a good practice. A temporary staircase is an idea but is the landlord obligated ,they offered compensation-...?
the tenants.. check your mail. Think about it this way if the city said I am paving your road on Tuesday are you going to have empathy for me because I didn't read my mail and now can't get out because they blocked me in ?
I find it hard to swallow that only some apartments were notified.
On the other hand the landlord gets a brainless award for not posting ON THE STAIRCASE when it will be unusable ...
the fire department-kudos to them
Our words are a reflection of who we are as people, as landlords. I posted this story as a cautionary tale for us to see what can happen when we forget that on the other side of this business are human beings who deserve empathy. Behind every tragedy (not to say that this is one) is a long line of people who blame the victim....always. Of course it is a lot easier to do when you hide behind a veil of anonymity.
We can talk about this in perpetuity but the fact remains that we don't know these people so they don't deserve to be insulted in any way. The undisputed fact is that the premises were unsafe and execution of the repair was badly botched. We can glean what ever lessons we want from this and move on.