This week, a pipe burst in my apartment building and flooded my kitchen and part of my living room. On Monday night water started dripping from my kitchen and living room ceiling. The dripping rapidly turned into brown/black water flooding my apartment and eventually both ceilings caved in. I left that night because it was essentially raining this water in my kitchen and my management and super were not responsive. The next morning, I came back to assess the damage and saw that everything in my kitchen had been coated with this black water and the damage was severe.

This is the color of the water that fell all over my apartment.

Kitchen ceiling collapsed and water was raining from all of the cracks.

Living room damage

This is how much water was in my kitchen. This dish is sitting about a foot off of the ground.

Living room ceiling

My management company has offered to pay me $750 to break my lease, and I claimed the damages to my kitchen belongings through insurance. However, finding a new place to live in NYC in less than a month is both difficult and expensive. I currently support myself while putting myself through school to become a psychotherapist. I cannot afford the upfront costs of moving and/or putting my stuff into storage while I look for a new apartment, because I live paycheck to paycheck. I am just trying to raise enough money to pay the first month and security deposit so that I can move out of this apartment.

This management company has previously evaded fixing issues in my apartment -- I did not have hot water for two months when I moved in. They have repeatedly harassed me about calling 311 and have tried to get me to move rather than fix issues in the building. When they saw the damage pictured above, they said "they could have it fixed by Wednesday (in 48 hours)" -- an unreasonable claim for such severe structural water damage. I do not want to risk my health and safety with this company any longer which is why I am taking their offer to break the lease. Although the $750 they have offered me helps with moving costs, I am asking for help to pay for the rest of the costs of relocating to a new apartment after this experience.