So some of you may have noticed there was a bit of a storm last Saturday night
My apartment is very (very) old, and is due to be demolished in Feb 2011. The windows are not PVC / uPVC, they're just your normal single glazed / wood frame windows. And they are very very old.
This basically means that they are not water-tight, and so during the storm I had rain bucketing into my kitchen, living room and bedroom from around the windowframes.
The floors were all flooded. We soaked up the floodwater with towels, and then dried the floors as best we could, before heading over to my GF's place to go and do the same in her apartment.
In my kitchen (tiles) there's no problem, in the bedroom (laminate) no problem, but in the living room (parkett), I returned home today to find that the water had got under the parkett, raised it up to about 4 inches off the actual floor in places, and it has subsequently cracked / broken in the heat.
I am moving out on October 1st.
My questions are:
1) Is such a thing covered by insurance (?)
2) Does anyone have direct experience of dealing with a landlord on this sort of issue?
3) Would it seem reasonable of my landlord to ask me to replace the parkett when I move, given that the place will be demolished in 6 months?
I have not yet spoken to my landlord about this as I wanted to get an idea of what I should expect, so that I can phrase the way that I tell them appropriately.
I dont think the landlord will ask you to do anything. I mean no matter what you do the building will not exist so whats the point? But better check with the insurance to make sure. You never know
maybe you can get something out of it as you do no longer have a place to live....(they do not know you have a 2nd place) Thats what you pay insurance for and it due to the infrastructure. worth a try
I left stuff on the ceramic cooktop, accidently turned it on and left the apartment. By the time the neighbor (the owner's father) smelled smoke and checked it out -the hole place was full of smoke. Every room stunk and the clothes closet was open too. Our renter's insurance paid for the dry cleaning for clothing, rugs, curtains, etc. plus, burnt articles (just the few things on the cooktop). The Owner's insurance paid for damage to the walls etc. Floors weren't damaged so I don't know for sure but it seems that belongs the structure and is thus the owner's problem.
Another point: This happened on a Saturday. There was no one to call to start the clean-up process (Washing every surface!). I was preganant and couldn't live in that stink so I cleaned. One of the insurance companies paid me back for every hour I worked.
Especially in your case, you should be paid for the time you spent salvaging the apartment. You could have gone to your girlfriend's place and let everything be destroyed.
Can you tell me what you mean by "renters insurance" and why the landlord claimed from insurance rather than take it out of your deposit? Which specific insurance/company do you have? Thanks
A few days after we moved into our first house in Switzerland, I came downstairs to find the kitchen flooded, water running down the stairs into the cellar, into the garage, and running down the steet. It started off as hot water, but quickly drained the tank. This was on Easter Sunday.
I turned off the water, and we called out the Pickett service, on the instructions of our very helpful neighbour, and the plumber came round and fixed the problem. Which was that the new kitchen hadn't been done properly, the hotwater pipe hadn't been secured to the wall, and had worked loose.
The landlord's insurance paid for everything - and recovered it from the original plumber's insurance.
We're going through something similar at the moment. Our house is very old, too. The pipe going into the wall from the washing machine worked its way out when we were doing some washing. Our kitchen was flooded and the bedroom of the flat below was flooded, too, with very bad damage to the walls and ceiling.
The lady from our real estate came to inspect and the first thing she said to me was that this was why they had insurance. All damage is their responsibility as it is their washing machine, pipe, walls etc etc. We've since had strange sci-fi like pipes going in and out of our kitchen floor, to get rid of all dampness and are now waiting on a new floor. But absolutely no mention of us paying anything.
I don't think you should be liable for replacing anything, given the damage was due to faulty windows.
This happened to us (ground water coming up through the floor) in our private flat and also to me (windows not watertight) several times in my business premises. Our household insurance paid for all our furniture, clothing etc etc which was ruined in the flood, and the landlords insurance (compulsory Gebäudeversicherung) paid to dry out the place and put down new floors etc. Can't remember who paid the rental on another property which we had to move to while we couldn't live in the original place, but I know we did not pay it. In the case of the business premises it was the same - the rental agency also provided alternative premises for a while until the other place was dried out. We also got paid for work which we did (standard is about CHF25 per hour).
Don't know how Zug organises it, but in Kanton ZH this would be an Elementarschaden covered by the statutory cantonal buildings insurance and, as above, I would expect the landlord to be able to claim on that
You should inform your landlord as soon as possible.
The apartment owner will almost certainly have the building insured with the Kantonale Gebäude Versicherung (Its one of those funny Swiss things, a compulsory insurance for buildings against fire and natural disasters or acts of God) You should insure your own belongings separately, with Hausrat Versicherung, but it is not compulsory.
Thanks for all the helpful replies! I'll send a mail to the landlord now. Fortunately, nothing of mine was ruined except some old towels and my quiet Saturday night in
Keep the tips coming as I'm sure other people will find some use from any similar experiences.
The landlord came to inspect this morning - poked and prodded, made holes in the parkett, checked the humidity / moisture underneath, nodded and seemed to be fairly satisfied with things.
They didn't say if they will repair it, replace it, or just leave it to be knocked down in Feb with a holey floor. Personally I don't much mind what they do, so long as it doesn't cost me anything :-)
Because; in storms it is advisable to close the shutters as that protects the window frames especially when the wind is blowing as often in a storm and the rain comes at an angle.
Slightly different situation with me, but it might be helpful to others on "how things work" in CH:
This week Monday evening (hot, humid) I wanted to watch the news, all the windows were open, I stupidly lit a candle and promptly fell asleep. My husband was working in his office at home and heard the fire. The wind had blown the curtains into the candle. He managed to pull me out and we started to extinguish the fire with wet towels and blankets.
Curtains, carpet, bookshelves, parkett floor all burnt, walls black. On Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. I called the Regie (Hauswart), he immediately came over to have a look. Same day 8 a.m. I called our insurance company (Zurich Versicherung), they sent somebody on Tuesday afternoon to look at the damages and make a report, on Wednesday afternoon somebody from the Kant. Gebäudeversicherung came by to check for structural damages, on Thursday (yesterday) Zurich insurance arrived with the packers to clear the room, next Monday the parkett-people will start to repair the floor, on Wednesday the painters arrive, everything should be done by next week Friday.
Costs: The curtains and carpet (3 x 4 m Gabbeh ) are a total loss, the made-to-measure bookshelves can be salvaged/repaired. All costs (at a pro rata rate, we've still got the bills so they know what this stuff cost us) will be paid for by Zurich insurance company. I could kiss them!
Atmosphere, nice light, too much wine...... dunno really, but believe me, I've now banned candles from our place (except on the dinner table, while we're actually seated there )
Yep, shutters on all windows and the shutters were closed - the apartment / windows are really, really old
(Like, getting-demolished-in-February old...)
Just got an e-mail from the landlord - even though they are going to knock it down in about half a year, they will repair the damaged sections of Parkett - appointment made for next Monday for the guy to come out and make a start.