(TLDR at bottom)
Location: Michigan
About 3 weeks ago my apartment (which I had been renting for about 2 years) was flooded with a foot of septic water. I was left displaced as the landlord (property management company, as they don’t own any of the properties) said it’d be at least several months before the apartment would be habitable again, as they’d have to redo that entire ground floor.
They had hired a company to come and rip up the wall and flooring, and part of that included throwing away anything that got in the way of that. I had to rush to save everything I could, as I was told that anything that I didn’t take would be thrown away. So I saved what I could but left a lot—a lot of the furniture, which was wooden and gotten soaked in the shit water and so was to me unsalvageable. A lot of food, like my fridge which I had just filled before this happened and which I couldn’t transport all of its contents—both cause my focus was on nonperishables, and because this flood happened on the hottest day of the year we’ve had so far. And a lot of other little things which I just couldn’t fit in three trips in my small car. So I left a lot. But again, I was told that everything I didn’t take would be thrown away.
It’s been three weeks, that apartment is officially no longer mine. I was homeless for one and a half week, before signing a new lease at a different location with the same management company. 2 out of 3 sets of keys for that apartment were lost in the flood, but I still have one.
A week ago the landlord (point person for the managing company) texts me about returning the keys, and also mentions getting anything else I need from the apartment. I didn’t think there was anything else to get (besides mail). I wasn’t able to get around to doing it that week, as I was busy, back at work, and also moving slow because I injured my back during the rushed move. But I find time to stop by the old apartment on Sunday night to get my mail; and though I had already written off everything that we had left behind three weeks ago, I decided to look into my unit.
I’m guessing what they had meant to convey to me during my “move” was “anything you didn’t take would be at risk of being thrown away” as it turns out there is still some stuff in my apartment. Those things that weren’t in the way of them ripping up what they needed to. Like the stuff left in high cabinets. Or like the fridge, which it seems like they are just going to clean and keep for when the apartment is refurbished—and all the food left in it, spoiled because the fridge had been moved and unplugged.
At the time I chose to interpret this, and my landlord’s text, in only the most favorable of ways. I thought “oh, that is kind of them to have tried to save and work around as much of my belongings as they could; and that is kind of my landlord to message me and give me this one last opportunity to save anything I could. Some of this stuff is clearly unsalvageable—I for instance had two wooden bookshelves which both got soaked in the shit-water, and one of those has been disposed of but they seemed to have saved the other for me for some reason. But whatever. They a little confused, but they got the right spirit.”
I didn’t want anything. I’d made peace with what I had lost. And since the only things they’ve done so far had been to remove the floor and first two feet of the wall, its not like the place still didn’t carry the fumes from the shit-water, and anything left would have been soaking in those fumes for three hot weeks. I’m good. But I took it as an offer, and appreciated the generosity of the offer anyway.
But then I get an email from my landlord yesterday (Monday), saying:
I am following up with you about removing your belongings from
. The contractors are requesting everything be removed including the contents of the refrigerator by the end of this week. Please confirm with me you can remove all the items this week.
It’s hard for me to extend such benefit-of-the-doubt to my interpretation of this email. Maybe something changed (such as them hearing from the contractor), or maybe I was just being childishly naive before, but this reads to me like she wants me to return to the apartment I was displaced from, which I no longer own, for the sole purpose of hauling out spoiled and shit-drenched remains.
TLDR:
Lost my apartment in a shit-water flood three weeks ago. Removed everything I could save. Landlord seems to be expecting me to return for the sole purpose of throwing away the stuff that remains.
Advise me:
Is this legal? Am I legally obligated to do this?
Thanks for any help. Sorry its so long.