<p>My D lives in an off campus apartment. I know that the east coast has had a lot of rain this past weekend. She woke up Monday morning with a leak in the ceiling of her room. She emailed the property company and asked me to call them and leave a message because she was at work and couldn’t call. I called but the phone was continuously busy but the management company emailed her back and told her they would look into the leak.</p>
<p>She has been in this apartment for a little over a year and this is the 3rd time it has leaked. The apartment has a rubber roof. I have a little experience with rubber roofs and know that they can be really hard to find a leak and fix. </p>
<p>She came home Monday night and did not see any evidence that anyone had come into the apartment and tried to fix anything. It was still dripping and so on Monday night she slept on the couch. </p>
<p>She came home from work yesterday and the ceiling is crumbling in her room. She tried to call the management company and the phone was still busy. She emailed them again. I told her that I didn’t feel comfortable with her sleeping in her room so she crashed at a friends house.</p>
<p>My question. What else can she do if anything? It’s very frustrating that the phone is continuously busy and there has been no evidence that anyone has been in her apartment to look at the ceiling.</p>
<p>There may be a tenants union type organization for her school/city she can ask for help/answers. Also there are codes and a way to notify city authorities of habitablity (a word?) violations- this sounds like one.</p>
<p>If the landlord is not responding, she should check into the local town’s building department or department of housing. Most towns have regulations about housing and the duty of landlords towards tenants. One note, she should document how long this problem has been happening, and also note if she has tried to get a hold of the landlord before the latest event (e-mail is nice, because it leaves an audit trail). Among other things, a leaky roof, besides being uncomfortable, can lead to things like plaster ceilings coming down, and also can promote mold growth. One possible way to get action is to send a certified letter to the local housing department cc’ed to the building management office documenting the problem, that usually turns the trick with issues like this (years ago, I had a running battle with NY Telephone in the house I was living in in the Bronx, where I would lose phone service every time it rained and they basically refused to do anything; I sent a letter to the state Public Utilities commission, and miraculously, after getting the run around for years, saw action). </p>
<p>I also recommend she take pictures if she can (Cell phone camera should work fine), showing the leak condition and any damage it causes). One thing she should not do is in any way witholding paying her rent in protest, it not only won’t work, the way the law is written she could end up evicted and believe me, the SOB’s who own the place would only be too glad to do that, to get rid of what they probably see as a problem tenant.</p>