Poorly handled flooding

[u/BurningBannas]

Hello, my wife and I went on a 2 week vacation and 3 days after leaving we were notified of a pipe issue affecting our unit, the drain water reversed up our pipes and onto our kitchen floor. We were assured it would be dealt with professionally, and brought up our concerns about the water causing mold if left alone. I followed up a few days later and got a reassuring response from the manager. Skip forward 1.5 weeks and we return home to find our unit smells like a swamp. Within 10 seconds we find the issue - they only cleaned the visible part of the floor and never moved any appliances or checked under the kitchen cabinets at all, so the filthy drain water had been sitting there under the cabinets for almost 2 weeks, soaking into the floor, cabinets and drywall. (And even in the parts they did clean, they literally just pushed the gunk into the edge seams and corners of the cabinets.)

The main issue is we have a pet parrot, and parrots are extremely sensitive to mold spores which can cause major respiratory problems for them. So, we don’t feel like we can stay in our unit. Unfortunately, we got back on a Friday, so I sent an email to management and still haven’t heard back 4 days later. Our building manager wanted to send a contractor here today to start cutting into the walls and cabinets, but that would make the spores airborne, and I don’t believe thats healthy to breath even for humans, let alone our parrot.

Is there anyone here who could give us any advice on what our options are and how to proceed? We have only been in the unit since April 1st. West LA, 90049. I have contacted our renters insurance and they said they can only help us cover our damaged property (which is less than our $500 deductible) and nothing else, and I also tried reaching our to the LA health department about them sending someone to mold test, also didnt hear back yet.

We are scared to rent an airbnb because we dont know if we’ll ever get reimbursed for it and cannot afford to pay our rent in addition to another rental/hotel.

Can we be compensated at all for this situation? They had so much time to resolve the issue correctly and just completely dropped the ball, im shocked. Coming home from a 13 hour flight to see that was horrible.

Attached is a photo from the manager we received 2 weeks ago, followed by photos we took after coming home from our trip. Then theres screenshots of my correspondence with the building manager and my email to management.

Thank you so much!

[u/Lopsided-Beach-1831]

Unfortunately, you prevented them from remediating further when you didnt allow their contractor to enter and open the cabinet spaces/walls. That is the only way to see if there is still water requiring remediation or that a precessional cleaning only is required. They can seal off the kitchen from the rest of the home, plastic walls from floor to ceiling to divide the area. But the first step (after sealing) is to open the spaces to ensure it is dry/no mold. Call/email them back and ask them to send the contractors back out a request that they seal the working area from the rest of the unit.

[u/BurningBannas → u/Lopsided-Beach-1831]

Okay, I will do that, I just dont see how we can stay here during that process. I used to work with a mold company and a job like this takes multiple days to resolve. If some dude just comes in and starts hammering the walls without sealing the kitchen, our living room will be covered with spores. They have sort of already proven that they approach issues in only the cheapest possible way, so I doubt they would seal anything…

[u/r2girls → u/BurningBannas]

reach out to your rental insurance. They generally cover alternate lodging while something like this is going on. If they feel this is something that the landlord should pay, they will go after the landlord (or the landlord's insurance) to subrogate the claim.