Eliminating the effects of flooding is unpleasant and troublesome, but you need to know how to act in such a situation and what to do if you are flooded by neighbors.
Firstly, it’s very important to find out the cause of the flood and immediately turn off the water if your neighbors have forgotten to do it. If there are no neighbors at home, you can call them on the phone or call the manager of an apartment building because he or she must have access to all apartments. Once you have managed to eliminate the cause of flooding, you should turn to water damage repair service as soon as possible to minimize the dire consequences of flooding.
Of course, water damage repair service isn’t cheap, and you need to know how much it might cost and who’s going to pay for it. It’s not easy to assess the damages yourself, that’s why it is worth turning to the experts who will do it for you. By the way, modern companies which provide water damage repair service employ specialists who can carry out professional technical expertise and assess losses.
Try to resolve all issues with your neighbors and negotiate the compensation of damages politely and without any negative emotions like anger or frustration. Remember that these negative feelings can lead to a blazing row between you and people living upstairs or next door. Your apartment won’t be repaired, moreover, you’ll spoil the relationships with your neighbors forever. On the contrary, if the amount of damages has been agreed upon, the money has been transferred to you, and you have signed a no-claims receipt, you can immediately call water damage repair service and start repairs.
There might also be a situation when your neighbor, who’s guilty in your spoilt furniture and walls because of a flood, refuses to pay for the damages, you can contact a lawyer and file a suit. However, to do it right and win in the courtroom, you must have the correct assessment of the damages written by an expert.
You can talk to your neighbor again and try to resolve all issues without a trial since all court costs, lawyer services, and the amount of damage will also be reimbursed from his budget.
What if the one who’s guilty in flooding the neighbors is you? In this case, you’ll have to deal with people providing water damage repair service twice – repairing your own apartment, which is also damaged by water and your neighbors apartment too.
You must first negotiate with the neighbors downstairs and agree on compensation for the losses. A peaceful solution to such conflicts will cost you less money and time.
If you have successfully negotiated all issues with your neighbors, it’s high time you started taking the first steps to saving your property before a professional water damage repair service arrives:
• take out the carpets, take out the furniture, collect water from the floor surface with rags;
• open windows so that small items or clothes could dry;
• if it is cold outside, increase the temperature of the heating system to accelerate the evaporation of moisture that has penetrated the floor and wall coverings;
• do not use electric heaters to dry things because there’s a risk of fire;
• Moisture that evaporates when the temperature in the room rises remains in the air, so the humidity in the rooms grows rapidly and conditions for the development of mold are created, ventilate premises regularly.
Flooding is a very unpleasant situation that many people experience because of many different reasons. Whatever the reason of flooding is, the best way to cope with it is to turn to a company specialising in providing water damage repair service, however, it’s also important to act immediately to minimise the consequences of flooding.