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Just here to vent really before I go back outside, alone, in the pitch black at nearly midnight, with nobody to hold the torch, to dig a trench as I am in the middle of a flood. Only my backyard and garage fortunately but I can kiss several thousand dollars of electronics, clothes and art stored in the garage thanks to needing to minimise the home for our guest room! It’s about 30 cm high now after 15cm at 4:30pm (7 hours ago). My son is away and I have no idea where my head torch is I lent him, the outside light blew in the lightening storm prior to the flood, and I have guests arriving in 24 hours and will need to take tomorrow off work too.
To all of you hosts that complain about renters, I am one and my landlord allows me to do ABB because he is lazy and selfish and refuses to maintain anything on this property and just wants to rent paid by any means. I am forced to do what I can as I need a place to live and I need the air money. I am totally legal with insurance (thank god I have flood cover), however he breaks every law relating to landlord responsibility and your legal options are limited. Yes I would win at court and then I would be left without a home and he would just rent to some other sucker. As he did for 5 years before I fell into the trap. So stop picking on tenants like we are the scum, some of us get treated like scum by our landlords and pay for thousands of dollars of stuff they should be and I am literally covered in scum right now. Arrrrrrgh
Rather confused by your post why are you having to ‘kiss several thousand dollars of electronics, clothes and art stored in the garage’ if you have insurance?
Why go out in the dark ?Just call your insurance company and get them to authorise workmen/women to come out and help. That’s what you pay for insurance for.
I haven’t seen people here complain about people who rent legally with the landlords permission and in line with any local zoning laws.
If your landlord is so awful, there must be somewhere else you can live.
Actually I am trying to mitigate my losses, that’s why I’ve been digging the trench as the drains in my whole suburb are blocked and emergency services have peaked and being used for people wi no roofs. And no the insurance company cannot send anyone, it’s actually not their responsibility, I rent, I have top of range contents insurance and that doesn’t include building works to your property. It will cost me thousands as art is always undervalued by insurance, I have an excess and my premiu,s will go up massively. My sons art portfolios have been ruined also which are irreplaceable.
Thanks for your helpful tip that surely I can find somewhere else to live, of course I have thought of this!!! I actually live in the 8th most expensive city in the world, have a good job so pay 40% of my income in tax and pay 50% of what’s left in rent, so no it is not easy at all to find another affordable rental at all in my city nor save enough to buy in this situation. My husband left me with an 8 month old and all his debt I spent 10 years paying off every cent. My parents are both deceased and my own sibling lives in France where I cannot get a job at this stage but am working towards. Not everyone’s life is so simple to say just move.
I am sorry that you are facing such a hard time. My remark wasn’t flippant.
I’m a single parent myself so know how difficult it is to bring a child up by yourself and pay off a partners debts.
I had to move over 200 miles away from my family and friends and where I was brought up and switch careers in order to find somewhere affordable to live.
Thanks @Zandra I really appreciate that. I’ve given up for tonight outside, blow drying the portfolios now, lol
This guy is a little more stressed than me I guess right now, there is a better video showing the guy driving into the flood against all common sense that was on the news Twitter feed earlier but I can’t find it now…a p-player for those that don’t know is a person who has just got their driving licence ‘probationary’ and different conditions apply
Hi Emily, I’m really sorry to hear what happened and what you have been through. I live in Melbourne and my garage was flooded too. Life is tough for many and we all have problems at some stage. Eventually every bad experience will come to an end and we are stronger after what we’ve been through.
“In Freudian psychology, displacement is an unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for goals felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.”
Sorry you’ve been flooded and I hope things turn out better than expected with the insurance. Maybe this catastrophe will give you the boost you need to seek a better living situation or to stand up for yourself.
@Helsi even the best insurance does not replace like-for-like when you’re talking about clothes, art, or - in my experience - even electronics half the time. I hope you never have to experience a major burglary or loss, but if you did maybe you wouldn’t respond so harshly.
Was thinking that myself actually. I’ve had the misfortune to have to claim a couple of times and you get the residual value; it’s never enough to go out and buy the exact same item you lost because they take off depreciation.
This flooding may be beyond any landlord’s control. Based on the news reports, this storm has been monumental:
Doesn’t mean your landlord might not have done some things to mitigate the risk, but, I suspect that many people in your area will have to deal with massive flood damage. Even those that have taken good care of their properties.
Sounds like @Emily guests might have trouble getting there for their reservation. Loss of income is another hazard not covered. And this loser landlord obviously won’t be any help getting things fixed. He’ll probably make a claim with his insurance and pocket the money.
Hang in there Emily! Are your guests going to be able to stay there today?
No one has anything against hosts who rent. It’s the renters who sneak Air behind their landlords back that some take issue with. But you have permission…so that’s different.
Lucy I have suffered major loss due to floods in a previous property, I rented, so I do know what it is like to suffer from losing items that cannot be replaced.
I don’t feel I was responding harshly. I was genuinely confused by how Emily said she was losing thousands in terms of contents and at the same time was insured for her contents.
I now have a like for like replacement policy which gives you the full cost at today’s values, with additional cover for my more expensive single items which I store along with personal irreplaceable items in secure water proof storage…not foolproof I know, but I wanted to minimise future loss/damage.
At the time, I worked with my landlord buildings insurance company (here the landlord has to have buildings insurance) and my contents insurance company and arranged for a loss adjuster to come out and the insurance company gave me contact details for workmen to come out and arrange for humidifiers and protect the property from further damage.
Emily I am sorry if you felt I was being harsh. I was simply providing advice based on my own experience.
My front garage door and back door, I should I say my new backyard swimming pool lol & I have repeatedly asked my landlord to fix the garage issues and even built a platform inside for about $500 at my own cost but the water rose too high yesterday. His response to my property manager who just quit, ‘tell her if she doesn’t like it she can f off’ when I asked why the drains they promised to maintain are overgrown with debris and blocked, I have quite bad arthritis and I simply can’t do all this manual labour, helpful. He has had 2 years, I was on a lease I would have to go to court to break & like I said we have a housing crisis here. I found out we are no longer the 8th most expensive city in the world, we are now the 6th, I moved from Sydney to come here as it was much cheaper lol.
I’ll keep you posted on my clean up and insurance claim and will check with my pending quests now if they are still coming? Thanks for the tip
Interesting update, without subfloor and building materials costs (which ironically I am covered for rebuilding as I paid for as landlord was too scabby), I have calculated about $5000 damages but that doesn’t include the clothes, I’m too scared to look at those yet. Insurance company is sending a ‘restorer’ new age word for loss adjuster and the company they are sending is the same ‘emergency repairs’ crew that the landlord sent the day I moved in who said nothing to be done about the drains when I had a minor flood in my supposedly totally water proof garage. Guess they won’t have the guts to decline ANY of my claim or I can claim a. Conflict of interest 2. They said nothing can be done so it’s totally not my fault it flooded as they should have fixed it the first time or at least provided a sub floor or shelving but the landlord was too scabby and they wanted the business from the real estate agency so didn’t help me.
I plan to become a total minimalist and not replace anything I don’t have to and use the money to move house when I find a good one and a landlord that will accept my Airbnb so I keep on hosting.
If I have to keep half my clothes in the garage I must have too many clothes.
Then you should buy Mari Kondo’s book. Read it before you start the purge. It’s not so much about minimalism as it is about only keeping clothes that give you joy. Gifts you hate, clothes you don’t wear but you keep because they’re in great condition, books you’re holding on to because you’re going to read them someday … all go. But if you feel joy when you hold an item you get to keep it
I live in a tiny flat and didn’t think I had much … 15 black bags have gone to recycling in the last 3 days.
We have a brilliant thing here in our town called ‘green drop’. It’s a tiny office with a large box outside. You drive up, give them your phone number, deposit the items, and they email a receipt (for taxes). It’s awesome. We have a bag sitting by the front door always and it just fills up with stuff we get rid of.
We, too, have had a long major purging happening since we turned space over to airbnb. From junk to $$. Awesome all the way around.
Emily, sorry for the pain and anguish of this experience. To lose valuables and to have it be, in part, because of someone else’s disdain for you as a human is painful.
To be sure you heard - any rancor delivered towards renters on this forum has SOLELY been towards renters who airbnb illegally and jeopardize all of us. Who here could hate renters just because they rent?
Most of us who now own used to rent. I’m one of them. If you do it with your landlords blessing then more power to you. You sounded frustrated and angry about the flood and the ruined valuables and I would surely feel the same.
