I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question. I guess I'll give a little history. About a year ago, while gone for the weekend, a pipe in the wall sprung a leak. The landlord was very good about repairs. She basically replaced most of the bathroom. Unfortunately, the leak ended up sticking me with a $560 water bill(after adjustments). I'm a disabled Vet. I live on $1000mo. The only reason I can afford to rent this small, very old Florida cottage is because I get help with my rent from Section 8 housing. My VA housing counselor told me that she thinks the landlord might share some of the responsibility for the bill but, she wasn't sure. Now, I've got a few issues with anxiety and dealing with people. I dropped a few hints to the landlord about the bill I was stick with but, she ignored all of them and I was uncomfortable outright confronting her directly. Eventually, I managed to reach out to an independent Veterans organization and they helped me to take care of the bill. Now, a little less than a year later, there was another leak. This one was under the house(it's a few feet off the ground)so I didn't know about it. However, the leak was in the exact same spot, just a little lower. When I contacted my landlord, she was out of town. She asked me to shut the water off, which I did, for the next 5 days. I did turn the water back on occasionally(as directed by the landlord)to refill some jugs and a 5 gallon water cooler I had. So, to try to wrap this up, I now have an overdue water bill for $360, with another one for $250 that just arrived. I just, finally after a month, received a scrap of paper posing as a receipt for the repairs. I might be able to get some sort of adjustment from the water company for the $250 water bill, but the $360 is due now. I can't reach out to the same organization as before, not for the same thing, less than a year later. I do have the money to pay it, but not it and rent. I guess what I'm asking is, does she actually have some sort of legal responsibility to help with the water bill? She's notoriously cheap, and I know she will argue with me when I tell her the leak was in the same spot. I've been here for almost 5 years, and the 1 time I didn't have rent, I ended up rebuilding the deck out back for her. I like where I live, and I hope to keep things friendly here. Any advice, or statutes that might help? Google search hasn't produced any definitive answers.
Submitted August 30, 2017 at 08:33AM by gammasmasher71 http://ift.tt/2xxVIFZ
