Apartment Flood

In legal reality, what you believe is irrelevant. This is your daughters issue and she should be the one handling it...that is part of being a grown up.

Please have your daughter join to post under her own username and we will be glad to offer guidance to her.

 

The hot water heater burst do to a freeze? Something's not right here.

 

I suggest you obtain a copy of her lease.

Once you have obtained a copy of the lease she signed, read it.

As you read, make notes regarding any provisions relevant to the flooding problem.

The answers you seek, especially any confusion concerning her specific liability MIGHT be revealed by reading her lease.

Does she have a renter's insurance policy?

If not, now wouldn't be an inappropriate time to consider obtaining renter's insurance.

Does your daughter live alone in the apartment, or does she have roommates?

If she has roomies, are they all signatories to the lease?

 

I've often wondered why one needs a hot water heater. Hot water is already hot.

That's easy. She can tell the apartment management to pound sand. Extreme weather conditions cause damage regardless of precautions.

 

I ask this as someone who has lived his whole life in a place where, expect for a couple isolated spikes, the temperature doesn't drop below 40F: what exactly does this mean?

Exactly what is the landlord doing to "try" to make her pay? Also, since your daughter has a roommate, the landlord is seeking payment from both of them, not just your daughter, right?

There's not a heck of a lot anyone here can tell you without knowing exactly what's happening. I assume your daughter can't pay anything, so maybe her landlord will sue her in small claims court. If that happens, she can appear and defend herself, and the court will decide whether or not she was negligent. The renter's insurance carrier needs to be put on notice (if that hasn't already happened), and it wouldn't be a bad thing (if applicable) for you to put your homeowner's insurance carrier on notice. I don't know if your HO insurance would provide coverage, but there's no harm in putting the carrier on notice.

But it probably says that she's responsible for returning the premises in the same condition as when she moved in (subject to ordinary wear and tear). Also, if she is negligent and her negligence results in damage to the landlord's (or anyone else's) property, then she can be held liable, regardless of whether the lease says so.

 

This is good. Talk to your carrier and let them take care of all of this for you.

 

The English language is fun isn't it? Full of inconsistencies, redundancies and other problems. It's no wonder I hear people who are not native speakers say that English is among the hardest languages to really master.

 

At least we only have one word for "the."

 

For the same reason we have VIN numbers. Americans love redundancy!

For the record, when I look on the Home Depot or Lowe's web sites, they don't sell "hot water heaters" - they only sell "water heaters"