I am a renter; moved in middle of June. 3 tenants in a 2 story row house. Absentee landlord. One of the tenants is a supper/manager of sorts. I rent the entire 2nd floor, 3 bed/2 bath. The supper tenant was away for two months July and Aug. Sometime during early Aug there started a leak from my master bath to the bathroom of the first floor tenant who was there.
The landlord sent her handyman to look at it, the guy came to check it out 3-4 times, ran water in my bathroom while checking for leaks downstairs, etc, nothing was noted, it was nothing that I was doing, and they eventually left me alone. End of Aug the second tenant came back. The leak downstairs persisted, they and the handyman kept coming back to my place all of September, kept doing the same thing with running water in my bathroom, checking for leak downstairs while my water is running, etc. Nothing changed.
Then this past Saturday they came back and said they determined where the leak is. In my bathroom, the shower has a faucet at the bottom which then has a small thingy that turns on the overhead shower. They are now saying that the leak is between this faucet and the showerhead and they need to open up the wall to fix it. They took off the water control in my shower so that I can't use the shower all week. Also, since both of my bathroom has a common wall, they want to open up the wall in the second bathroom to get to the pipe. So now I can't use my shower all week and they will be opening the wall in the second shower come Saturday. I can only hope that it will be closed back up the same day so that I have at least one working shower.
On top of this, I had the tenant from downstairs who has the leak come to place last night complain that I am not letting them fix this before Saturday, that her bathroom has mold growing and showed me pictures of her open ceiling in the bathroom. Not sure if she actually has use of her shower right now or not.
I refused to let this work done before Saturday. I work full time. My kids are in school, but they get home at 2pm and then they are alone until I get home from work. I don't want anybody in the house when I 'm not there. The tenant was trying to convince me to let the worker in in the morning when kids are in school, but I also refused. I'm not comfortable with someone being in the apartment when I'm not there. Also, if it's 2pm and they are not done, it's not like they will just leave when my kids get home. And my kids, though teens, are not quiet what I would call assertive. So in the end the tenant from downstairs was calling me selfish, telling me something about her asthma, and generally was flabbergasted that I refused. Not sure if she really has asthma or if that is just a ploy to get me to agree.
My question is am I being unreasonable? I understand that she is inconvenienced, but so am I. this has been going on for two months now. I am renting an apartment with two bathrooms, but can only use one. I have a feeling that this will not be the end of it all. I fear that I may lose the use of the second shower for at least a few days as well, though I hope this won't happen.
I understand that these things can happen. But then I was without water in the kitchen for two days two weeks ago because they were doing something at the second tenant's kitchen. My bathroom is over one tenant, my kitchen is over the second tenant.
Anyway, how often/long amI expected to put up with this before I start making a stink about my inconveniences? I am already canceling an outing with friends this coming Saturday because of this bathroom situation, but I am refusing to take vacation day from work to accommodate.
Please do not suggest that I move out.