Preventing Flooding in Apartment Buildings

As a property manager, you know that accidents happen. In fact, you’ve come to expect them. Regardless of how prepared you are, dealing with apartment flooding isn’t any fun. Dealing with water damage in your apartment is a major issue. It doesn’t matter the cause, like a leaky appliance from an upstairs neighbor, a burst pipe, or a natural disaster.

When you manage a property, it’s important to know who is responsible for what, and what rights you have as the owner of the building. Apartment flooding causing water damage can happen to anyone at any time, so it’s important to be prepared!

What Are the Causes of Water Damage?

Many things can cause water damage in an apartment building, and here are the main things to watch for:

• Bathtubs that overflow
• Leaky ceilings from upstairs tenants
• Appliances that have leaky hoses like refrigerators or dishwashers
• Flooded or leaky toilets
• Broken pipes

Water damage is typically caused by forgetful tenants, broken pipes, and old appliances. While you can’t help a forgetful tenant remember to turn off their shower, you can help maintain the appliances and plumbing in each unit!

Routine maintenance to make sure that hoses are securely attached to dishwashers and refrigerators and that toilets are securely connected to the wall, and pipes are not cracked can save you potentially thousands of dollars in water damage repairs down the line.

Who Is Responsible for What?

As a Property Manager, you’re responsible for any water damage that isn’t directly related to negligence on the tenant’s part. For example, if a toilet floods the apartment, and is not the fault of the tenant, you are responsible for replacing the toilet along with any structural damage affected by the flood.

Tenants are responsible for any water damage due to their own negligence. This includes flooding that is caused by appliances which repeatedly clog and go untreated. A leaky ceiling that is ignore, and so on.

Working With Alpha Omega Disaster Restoration

Once the water damage has reached your apartment, it’s time to call in the professional clean up team at Alpha Omega Disaster Restoration. Any water inside the building needs to be dried quickly to stop mold growth. Our team of water removal experts will come in and do a inspection, assess the damage, and work with your insurance to get the best restoration plan possible.

Call us today for more information and get the water out of your property now!