I have been renting an apartment for two years now, which ended up having mold growing it. My landlord hired a company to perform the mold removal and to repair any damages to the building that occurred due to the mold. During the time that the restoration company was here, we had a massive flood and all my stuff was damaged. The landlord told me that it is not his responsibility, that’s what renters insurance is for. This doesn’t seem fair since the stuff was located in his building when it was damaged, why is he not responsible? Do I have a claim for the things that were ruined against my landlord? Isn’t it his insurance that should pay for my damages?
ANSWER:
To answer your question, no, your landlord is not responsible for damages that happened due to the weather. The simple fact is, not in every situation in life you have someone you can sue. Your landlord was correct, this is the purpose for renters insurance, as homeowners insurance does not cover claims made for damages to the property of renters. Unless for some reason, your property was damaged because of actions taken by the landlord, your landlord cannot be held responsible for damages caused by natural occurrences. This would be like being at the mall and expecting them to cover damages to your car that happened in a hailstorm. As long as the damage that occurred was not from a direct result of the landlord’s actions or property that he was under control of, then the landlord is not liable for any of the damages. To give an example of something the landlord would be liable for, if there was a pool in the backyard and he drove his truck into it and the pool caused a flood and that flood caused damage to you as a direct result of what the landlord did, in that circumstance the landlord would be liable for flood damages. But in this situation you described, the landlord is not liable for any of the damage that happened to your property.
Joseph F. Botelho, Esq.
BOTELHO LAW GROUP
Attorneys At Law
901 Eastern Ave.
Unit 2
Fall River, MA 02723
Office: 888-269-0688
Email: jbotelho@botelholawgroup.com