Community Chat

[ladikara]

This is kind of winded, so forgive me ahead of time. I'm looking for somebody who is familiar with apartment "laws" (don't know a better term). Even this could be a what would you do if this happened...

I live in an 2 story apt complex. There are 4 units in my building and I am on the upper floor. It's owned by a large company that owns apartments around the US. Abought 4 hours again, I was on my computer in my bedroom and I smelled a smokey smell. The smell kind of came and went. A few minutes later, the smell came back a bit stronger. It peeked my curiousity as it was an odd smell and I went sniffing around. I left my bedroom and into the kitchen and noticed it being hazy in my kitchen. I started to panic a little. I got to looking at things, and noticed smoke was seeping in in the space between my kitchen pass-through counter and the wall. It was very fine puffs of smoke,but just enough to send me into a full on panic. I yelled at my roommate and she came out. We felt the wall, pulled out everything from under the sink, opened cabinets and the dishwasher....nothing. Everything was cool to the touch. So I figured out something had happened in the apartment below ours. At first I felt it was just them burning food, but then decided against as smoke was coming into our apartment.

I raced downstairs and knocked on their door. There was no answer. There is a window by our front doors and I peeked in through the blinds. I could see their dining room light on and the ceiling fan running. The apartment was FILLED with this gray smoke! I came racing back upstairs and called the apartment manager (dumb decision looking back on it...should of called 911). They are right around the corner. The maintenance man knocked on the door, and once again got no answer. He could see the smoke, so he police style busted in the door. Smoked BILLOWED out of the apartment. Ends up they had put a pot on the stove, turned the stove on, must of forgot about it, and left their apartment. I saw the pot come flying out of the apartment. It is charcoal black. My apartment manager later told me when they went in. Smoke was from the ceiling to their knees. It was so thick, that they couldn't find their way to the windows and patio doors to open things up. So they think it had been burning for awhile. They were surprised it had not caught on fire.

I am thankful as I was home as I know my other 2 neighbors on this side of the building were not. It stresses me to think what would have happened if one of us was gone for the day. The thought of a fire and losing my belongings and my pet just freaks me out beyond belief. So in all honesty, I am in a wee bit of shock. Nothing major, just thankful. My apartment manager has thanked me over and over and I have gotten an apology and a thank you from the downstairs neighbor. These are people we don't have a good relationship with as they are quite disrecpectful of their neighbors and the neighborhood. So it probably took a lot for her to apologize and say thanks.

Here is where I am running into my question. Can I ask my apartment manager for any compensation/reimbursment/rent discount over this? Over hearing the conversation, the neighbors are are already getting billed for the door andny cleanup and/or damage from the smoke. They have been told to call their apartment insurance company to start the process.

Here is why I'm asking for compensation/reimbursment/rent discount. It's been chilly where I live, and we have had our heater running. We have a small little window type unit built into the wall. It is quite expensive to run. So we try to bundle up until we can't stand it any more. It takes a lot for us to turn on the heater. Well we had been running our heater prior to this happening. When the smoke and smell filled our apartment, we opened all the windows and doors. Well any warmth went straight outside. We closed them back up after an hour, and now have had to run the heater again. My room got down to 60 degrees. I am sure the living room was colder then that. Now what I am finding is any room that has a closed door, still stinks. I just went into my bathroom and the smell is terrible. So I have the fan on in there. I now think I am going to have to reopen windows and doors as the smell in the apartment is bothering me. I cannot open my bedroom window or the front door, as they have a huge fan blowing the smell out of their apartment. The smell just flows right in here. I am getting to the point of thinking about leaving for the night, as the smell is really bothering me.

I guess I am just a bit upset that it's costing me a bit more because of somebody elses neglect. I hate asking to be compensated, as I am not usually that type of person. I usually just deal with it. As we all know, smoke smells seep into fabrics and such very easy. That is why I am upset. I just don't know what to do. Curious what you would do or if you are familiar with these types of things.

Thanks.