[myoheodu]

My daughter, while tryig to put a shelf up over her desk, inadvertently hit the fire sprinkler line. The bill for damages and repairs is $5400. For a variety of reason, listed below, we feel that they are responsible for a large portion of the bill. Specifically, they should have been able to turn the water off in 5 to 10 minutes. Instead, it took them around 45 minutes. Do we have any grounds to share in the responsibility for the $5400 or should we just pay it and move on. They are threatening to evict my daughter if we don't pay immediately. Following are more details:

• While the leasing contract states that “No holes will be permitted in the walls, woodwork, or floors…”; can this rule cannot be selectively enforced? Not only is the rule not enforced by XXXXXXXXXXXXX personnel, quite the opposite is true. Residents are told “Do whatever you want, just make sure that it's put back when you leave”. While inspecting potential damage to the 2nd floor apartment, the property manager complimented the 2nd floor residents on the stripper pole that they had installed (bolted to ceiling and floor) and suggested that they have one of those new pole dancing fitness classes.
• There was no malice or negligent intent on the part of XXXXXXXXX when the incident occurred, and there was no expectation that the sprinkler pipe would be there as it was in the wall over her desk (right of center), which does not back up to any obvious water sources. Additionally, the sprinkler head in the resident's room was on the opposing wall.
• XXXXXXXXXXXXX's response to the incident was negligent in the following ways:
o No response on the XXXXXXXXXXXXX emergency maintenance number, which was called twice. The first time was immediately (within a 3 minutes) following the incident. The resident subsequently ran over to the management office to notify them in person.
o XXXXXXXXXXXXX personnel not treating the incident as an emergency (i.e. residents told twice by XXXXXXXXXXXXX personnel not to call the Fire Department). Ultimately, someone called the Fire Department anonomously. When they showed up, the first thing they asked was why they weren't called immediately.
o XXXXXXXXXXXXX onsite property maintenance personnel not available. XXXXXXXXXXXXX personnel did not arrive until at least 15 minutes after the incident occurred. The property manager told me “it was unfortunate that it happened when it did. One maintenance person was o Workmen's Comp; the second was home sick; and, the onsite guy was at lunch”
o Improperly skilled/trained XXXXXXXXXXXXX property maintenance personnel. Onsite XXXXXXXXXXXXX maintenance personnel did not know how to turn the water off (main water line or the fire sprinkler line). With explicit direction from a maintenance person who was at home sick, the onsite maintenance person turned off the main water line first and realized that it was the sprinkler line. Eventually, the maintenance person who was at home sick had to come in and turn the sprinkler water line off himself. As a result water flowed freely from the high pressure sprinkler line for 45 minutes, causing additional damage to the resident's room and the two floors below.

Thanks in advance.

[Fr_Chuck]

There is no requirement that maintenance people be "on site" one crew could do several buildings and getting someone from the apartment complex on site, within a hour or two is, at least to me considered reasonable. Calling the fire department to me would have been the correct course of action for them to do *** actually I have serious issues why when the system went off, it did not automatically call them??
But at least in my area the fire department would have cut off the fire/sprinkler system.

I can't see why anyone but the person who hit the sprinkler could be held liable for any damages, unless the sprinkler head was placed in a position that was improper.

[myoheodu]

Fr_Chuck... thanks very much for your prompt response.

I'm less concerned about the maintenance person being onsite, they did arrive in about 15 minutes. Had they turned the water off then, the damage would have been greatly reduced. More importantly, I think, is the fact that the maintence person was obvioulsy not trained and did not know how to turn the water off. Don't they at least have the responsiblilty to have a trained maintenance person?

As to why the Fire Department wasn't called automatically, that's a good question, to which I'm not sure of the answer.

[Fr_Chuck]

Why the system did not call the fire department can be one issue, but I know as a police officer we were not allowed to touch the water shut off, even if we saw it was false, and it had to be done by the fire department

But yes the employee should have know where the shut off was, but then one could ask why did the people living there not know where it was also

[myoheodu]

The maintenance man that was out sick ended up coming in and shutting it off, so there doesn't appear to be an issue with the apartment complex shutting if off. He even commented that he had it off in 5 minutes. Unfortunately, that was at about minute 40. Also, if that was the case, telling the residents not to call the fire department was not right. I suspect that the property management office called the fire department to tell them that it wasn't an emergency, which is why they did not show up until they were called anonomously by another person. I can probably find this out by contacting the responding fire station.

As far as where the shut offs are, the residents haven't been told/trained in how to do that. They were instructed to call an emergency number. For what it's worth, this is complex that caters to college athletes so they are young, and in most cases, this is the first time they've been away on their own.

I tried to negotiate the cost, but that fell on deaf ears. I hope you don't mind me responding again, but $5400 is not trivial to us and, while we want to be fair, we want to mitigate our costs if at all possible.