Location: Saint Louis, MO.
Hi! I’m almost 26 (F) and I have never been this stressed before in my life. I don’t really know if there’s anything I can do about this but what the hell, I’ll ask. There’s also no one in my life with any legal knowledge so I’ve come here.
There was a tornado in STL back in May that tore through the neighborhood I was going to live in. I wasn’t living there yet and my move-in date was even pushed back because of damage/power outages. The timeline is like this: I signed my lease Apr 25th with a move-in date of May 24th because my old apartment had a move out date of May 30th. Everything is great until the tornado happens on May 16th. After some back and forth, on May 22nd my move-in date is pushed back to the 28th and I am sent a lease amendment to also adjust the lease length. I move in and have a few weeks of peace. On June 10th, I’m told that there will be a remediation company coming through to inspect for a safety review. They find some water damage in my unit that would necessitate removing some walls for drying but won’t require me to vacate. I’m led to believe that this company will begin the repairs on June 22nd, but instead they come in and continue probing. They find more water damage and on June 23rd, I am told I have a week to vacate. There’s more back and forth of me asking questions and not really getting any answers, but I am told by the manager that my unit will be made a priority as I expressed my intentions of not wanting to move again after less than a month. I am allowed to leave some of my things (re: heavy ass furniture) in the bedroom as that room was marked as undamaged by the vendor. I still have not received any certain timelines on how long it will take for my unit to be repaired. On July 7th, I’m given a probable estimate of completion of early to mid August. Today, on July 16th, I am told the manager is still three weeks away from having an estimate and that he thinks it’s best that I look for different housing.
I’m kind of hopeless at this point. Renters insurance isn’t helping me much. Is there anything I can do about them moving me into a unit without first ensuring that it was inhabitable after damage from a tornado? That part keeps tripping me up. If there’s nothing I can do legally, then idk please spare me a thought or a prayer because I’m so screwed.
Comments
If they need you to vacate in order to effectuate repairs, that is fine but they have to provide you alternative housing at no extra charge because you have a life.
If it’s a habitability issue — if the apartment is no longer “livable” — then you probably have no choice but to move temporarily, but they have to pay for your hotel or alternate apartment. If the repairs are not a habitability issue, you can tell them you prefer not to move out and they can either do the repairs while you are living there or wait until you move out to do the repairs. They may not like it and as a result may choose to not renew your lease when the term expires.