Statement:
MONDAY NIGHT - August 11
I was in my room working at my desk with my feet up and my mom was in the living room watching TV. It started to smell really bad, but it was raining outside, so I assumed the terrible smell was from something outside. Eventually I look down at 10:30ish and notice my whole room flooded with waste floating. I screamed and told my mom there was a flood in the house. That’s when she looked over to the kitchen and saw the water coming in the kitchen and entering the carpet area at a rapid speed. I tried to follow the water and noticed it coming from the laundry room. There was human waste everywhere at this point and the water was starting to get deep. While, panicing, I made the first call to my owner Adrian at exactly 10:34pm but he didn’t answer, so I called him and his wife, Nicole, a couple of more times. They still didn’t answer, so I called my downstairs neighbor, Rob, at 10:38pm to ask him if his apartment flooded too. He said it didn’t but asked to come over and at that point, the whole apartment was flooded with human waste including the living room, and the water was coming from the sewer pipes in the laundry room. I told him the owner wasn’t answering, and he called the owner a couple of times too but he still wasn’t answering, so seeing me and my mom in panic he said his company actually does this for work and that his job has water vacuum tools. Since no one was answering and helping me, he offered to help. While he was contacting his friend, my mom and I tried to remove the water using a broom and dust pan to avoid the water from completely ruining our furniture. It was working for a bit, but suddenly the water started coming up again. I ran to the laundry room and saw it was coming again at full force. I called adrian and nicole again but no answer, so at exactly 11:41pm I texted Nicole and Adrian there was an emergency and their was a septic overflow causing the house to flood. I called rob again and he said he was on his way. A few minutes later I saw miss calls from my owners adrian and nicole. At exactly 11:44pm I called Adrian back and sent him videos of the water rushing from the sewer pipes. Even on the phone, the owner immediately said the sewer was overflowing, so he knew exactly what happened, and said he was out of town but he was sending his brother over.
The water coming the sewer stopped but the house was again cover in septic and water. By this time, rob came back with the water vaccums, so I was taking the water out from my mom’s room and hallway and he was taking the water out from the kitchen area.
Around 10 minutes later rob’s friend came home to help and the owner brother, both at the same time. Adrian’s brother was on the phone with adrian and rob’s friend started to help clear some of the water out. Adrian’s brother was shocked and saw yes, this is definitely an insurance claim and started to take pictures of everything. There was spetic coming from both the showers as well, and the hallway toliet was burbeling. The bedroom toliet did have water come out. He said no one would be able to come until the following morning and confirmed the house was inhabitable. That being said, he told me and my mom to get a hotel and that adrian would take care of it and I just needed to keep the reciepts. He also told me not to worry about my furniture because I was scared the house would get more water while we were gone since it was still raining outside.
Rob and his friend helped clear out some of the water in the kitchen area near the couch since it was starting to become still and it was a lot. Adrian’s brother told me to come at 9:30am in the morning to help the workers come in.
After a couple of minutes, they all left and my mom and I packed to go to the hotel. All the nearby hotels were booked and because I was so distrat and it was still raining, we ubered to the hilton in evanston.
We got the hotel at 2:30am, and immediately showered but had spetic water all over us, including hair and clothes and shoes. Our clothes and shoes were completely ruined and smelled awkful. There was toliet paper still on them.
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TUESDAY - August 12
The next morning, I had to take the day off to attend to this issue and has was emotionally traumatized. At exactly I opened my door with Adrian’s brother and saw the water had dried down but there was leftover shit dried everywhere including closets and hallway and bathroom showers. The workers got to work and I was asked to leave. I watched for a few minutes and left back to the hotel since we couldn’t be in our home.
While I was at the hotel, rob texted me pictures of the rooms no longer having water or septic.
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At around 4:45pm, we went to the house to check it out and saw they hadn’t cleaned my bedroom closet, so I had to point it out to adrian’s brother. The cleaners were not professional cleaners. It was just his normal crew and all they did was room the things from my closet to my room, without cleaning any of the items that were in the closet and just mopped with clorex. Nothing fancy and noticed they didn’t even thoroughly clean the the showers. They just watered the waste back down the drain and maybe briefly sprayed some cleaning products, but all the stains and mold from before were still there. The kitchen sink was not touched at all. I noticed they also used some of my dollar store cleaning products, so nothing professional. After a while, we left and they were still there cleaning.
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At 8pm we came back to the house and everyone had left. We noticed multiple dehumifer fans everywhere. We came back to get a couple of more things and noticed again the kitchen sink was still not clean. After a couple of minutes, the owners brother came back in and said he had came to turn off the fans so it wouldn’t disturb the neighbors. I asked him what happened and he clearly said there was a sewage backup and there was no backflow in the apartment. I asked him what the next steps would be and he said “this happens, and no one could have predicted it would”. From the tone of his voice, I knew that meant he was trying to lift the blame off of brother. He was avoiding any responsibilities and just trying to say this happens. He told me that adrian would come back tomorrow morning, and I needed to talk to him.
After a couple of minutes my mom and I left since earlier in the day adrian’s brother said we can’t stay in the apartment another night as well and needed the humifiers to suck the water out from the floors.
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WEDNESDAY - August 13
The next morning exactly 11:15am, my mom and I got back to the house. A couple of minutes later, adrian came and I showed him all the damages. I showed him how there was still water in between cracks and he saw the floor being lifted as well. I also showed him the sewage stains and my clothes damaged, the waste still in the sink and everything.
I asked him what the next steps would be and he said his insurance didn’t cover the flood. I asked him for a plumbers report, so I could try to do claims for any items with my credit card company since everything I bought was new and Amex and Citi and some expensive furniture brands have damage warranties, but they need proof of a plumbers report to ensure it was an accident and I didn’t intentionally damge the furniture. I didn’t have renters insurance and even if I did, the one, the one I was literally going to get a week ago didn’t even cover spetic floods. Most don’t.
After saying this, he said isn’t of the report, he would help cover some of my damages. I told him I would calculate the damages and tell him how much all my damages were if that’s the route he wanted to go. He asked if I still wanted to stay and hoped I would after he repaired everything because I was a very good tenant and never had conflicts and always paid rent on time.
We left on good terms. He said he would help cover costs, and I told him I’d send him my responses on the cost of the damages and if I wanted to continue to stay. Meanwhile, he would call his workers to figure out when to logistics for the repairs.
After this conversation he left.
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A couple of hours later, Adrian came back to turn on the humidifier fans, and told me we had to evacuate by tomorrow. I told him I sent him the list of expenses and he said he hadn’t taken a look at it. His initial reason was shocked and then he said said no that he wasn’t going to pay that much and was just expecting a cost of 1K. I told him I wanted the plumbers report before they came to fix the floors, so I can start my claims. He said no. And I clearly told him this wasn’t fair because even if I had renters insurance, I would need a plumbers report for that as well. I went around again showing him the damages of everything I had included in the excel. He started to intimate me by saying no other owner does this and that he was trying to help me out and was again questioning why I even needed the plumbers report. I again told him I needed to use to it prove I didn’t cause damages myself. I said we needed to agree on a number or I wanted to call the plumber the next morning. He left saying he would look at everything and get back to me.
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A couple of hours later, he called and said he was only going to do one month’s of rent, which barely included 1k in damages and I would have to figure out my immiedate living situation. I told him the lowest I could go is 4k and then he started saying things like “You’re not appreciating me, or doing this the nice way” which meant accepting whatever he gave me. I told him it had nothing to do with appreciating or being nice, I needed to recover my damages and 1 months of rent simply wasn’t enough to recover that. Therefore, I would need to go through my credit cards, and asked again to have the plumber come in. He strictly said no and then said I’m not paying you anything anymore, and I’m sending you notices to evacuate tomorrow. I clearly told him he was threatening me for wanting a report. At this point, I was exhausted and shaking and just so scared. I didn’t know if he was going to come with notices or police to get me out of the house tomorrow, and if I didn’t get the report before he fixed everything, I wouldn’t be able to recover any of my damanges taking a huge financial hit.
Still scared and shaking because I felt unsafe and threatened, i decided I needed to make a police report to document everything. Especially since if my apartment was damages, it’s my right to know how and why, especially if all my items are not sewer contaminated and everything needs to be replaced. If it’s the city’s fault from the report, I need to file with the city. If it’s my owner’s fault (which his brother said it is), he needs to take full responsibility for it, and if it’s my fault, I need to start claims with credit cards/furniture warranties.
Adrian called again but I was too scared to talk to him. So his wife texted saying they were coming the next morning. I told her again I wanted the plumber to come in before they came, and asked if I could call one. She again didn’t answer. And then she said Adrian was bringing someone, and I asked if I can call someone or if Adrian and I can call someone together. She again didn’t answer.
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THURSDAY - August 14
The next morning I was again very scared, but texted her asking when they were coming.
I understood the floors needed to be changed. That wasn’t the problem, the problem was the owner was trying to avoid his reponsibilites, and threathen and intimate me.
Overall this whole situation has taken a huge toll on my mental health, I don’t even feel safe living in my whole, I feel stuck, and my owner gaslight me, intimated me, lied to me, and threathened me all to avoid responsibility. I don’t even feel safe communicating with him. And now all my items have sewage contamination, my clothes smell bad, and a lot of my items were fully ruined, I had to beg people to let us live with them. I’m also not even getting my rent back for the days I wasn’t even able to live there.
Even while they were fixing the floors, they just stacked everything on top of eachother without cleaning anything, further contimating everything and it’s been almost a week of being told to evacuate and I still haven’t heard anything.
