Nearly a month ago a pipe broke immediately outside of my basement apartment. I immediately notified the landlord who said he "couldn't deal with it right now." I suggested that I call a plumber (water was running into the apartment and pooling under my desk (and under the carpet). He refused and said he'd deal with it "tonight or tomorrow."

Long, painful story short, he and his wife showed up five and a half hours later. In the interim, in a desperate bid to save my business and possessions had purchased a wet vac, sent out the current project I was working on for another designer to complete and submit for me (it was on deadline for four a.m. the next morning and I had a couple hours's worth of last minute changes to address on it), tried to turn the water off at the in-house customer main shut-off, dug out the street water main and tried to turn it off (turns out you need a special tool for this), sucked up I don't know how much water. In between all this digging and sucking I made repeated calls to the landlord keeping him apprised of the situation as it escalated from a small patch of water under my desk to water pouring down the wall and covering the carpet over three quarters of the living room. In these calls I repeatedly asked that either he call a plumber, or that I have his approval for doing so. He reiterated that he would "deal with it later."

The excuses he gave were a) he was in the limo; b) he was at a party. Finally, four hours after all this started I made a final call and informed him that either he addressed the situation immediately or I was calling a plumber. His wife, who answered the phone responded in insulting and demeaning language that I was not to call a plumber, that they were "on the way." An hour later they finally showed up, informed me that "everything would have been fine if somebody at the house could have just turned off the water at the main," after considerable effort got the water turned off themselves, moved my furniture into the small room between my kitchen and living room, ran the wet-vac for a couple hours, and then left.

The next day a man showed up to fix the pipe. Turned out he was a relative. He gave me his number and told me that he was fixing the pipe because they were "out of town." At no point had they mentioned this the night before as we were bonding over the wet-vac.

A week later the carpet was still wet (mold is a huge issue in my state). The landlord was incommunicado. I did some reading in the landlord code for my state and, based on that, wrote a letter itemizing my expenses to date including the labor involved in dealing with the water on my own, again apprising him of the situation, warning him that we would need to address the issue of reduced usage in the next month, and reiterating my concern about the mold issue.

And that was it. Until tonight. More than three weeks after I sent (and he received) the letter. I got a call from him telling me that I still owed him for the balance of the rent. He went on to tell me that my insurance company would be happy to pay for the damage to my household items (they are) and equally happy to pay for the business expenses I incurred as a direct result of his refusal to address the situation when I reported it as well as compensate me for the fact that I have been unable to use half of my apartment for the past three weeks (they are not). They did, however, suggest that they might consider legal action against him.

When I told him that the insurance company was not willing to cover the business and labor expenses, nor to reimburse me for diminished living space he told me that they were trying to evade their responsibilities, and demanded to see my policy "to see to it that they paid for what they were supposed to."

Morally, I have little question about my position. Legally, though, where do I stand?

OK, first, do NOT show him your insurance policy. That is NONE of his business. Second, if you have a fairly standard renter's policy, it should cover any damage to your possessions. If the carpet is yours, it should cover replacement of that as well. If the carpet belongs to the apartment, then its probably not covered. Your business expenses would NOT be covered by a renter's policy unless you specifically had a rider to do so. If you have business insurance, then that might cover it.

The insurance company CAN and SHOULD turn around and sue the landlord for negligence. His negligence either caused or exacerbated the damage. But the insurance company will handle that.

YOU will have to sue him for the business expenses and anything else the insurance company doesn't cover. From what you have said, both you and the insurance company have a case. The landlord's refusal to deal with the problem in a timely and responsible manner seems to constitute negligence.

I hope you took pictures of the rising water and damage. I hope you have documented all your calls and the timing etc. Also documented any business losses you incurred. You will need them when you take him to court.

Yes, this helps. And thanks for responding so quickly. The only thing I haven't done (and I'm kicking myself now) is photograph the disaster as it was happening. I got so involved in trying to mitigate damage that I forgot the camera, and that's huge. However, at long last, the landlord says he's going to "get somebody in to check for mold". I'm thinking the extent of the water damage was such that it will show on the pad--you can certainly feel it on the carpet. I have, however, documented expenses, response times, etc. I talk to the insurance company this morning. Wish me luck. Thanks again. The carpet is his, by the way; the large chinese rug I had lying on it was mine. I don't think I have a business rider, but the agent will be able to clarify the extent of their responsibility.

The thing that amuses me about this is his insistence about the insurance. I think he thinks that gets him off the hook. But I think the insurance company will sue him to recoup what they had to pay out.

I know--it absolutely boggles my mind WHY he would think the insurance would even consider reimbursing me for the loss of living space and for labor involved in trying to limit the water damage in the face of absolute refusal to do ANYTHING.