Waste water (including sewage) is leaking into the basement of my rental house. What can I do??

Of course, it had to happen over the 4th of July weekend. I called our rental management emergency maintanance line and after 2 days of getting the run-around, they finally told us this morning that this doesn't actually constitute an emergency.

Here's the situation...any wastewater produced in our house from running water in the sink, flushing the toilet, showers, etc, is flowing into the basement through the pipe that we use for our washing machine in the basement. This includes what can be visually identified as turds. In addition to all of this grossness, we can't take showers, can't wash dishes, and can't use the toilet.

The rental managemnt company's answering service has made it cleat that they don't consider this to be an emergency. I think it has to be a health code violation, or some kind of breech of our lease or something.

What can we do here? It must be a health code violation or at least a breech of our lease. What are my rights here?

Contact the State, county and local govn and find the answers tomorrow morning, then hit the company with a nasty letter and file for grievences.

Secondly, file a formal complaint with every govn agency that is related to this issue and document the companies name and the fact that it ignored this issue.

You need to call the County Health Department and report it. It is a violation. Call the emergency rental management company again and ask for the name of the person you are talking to and tell them that you are reporting them to the health department. There may also be a state agency that you can report the rental agency to.

Read these sections:

http://www.dre.ca.gov/pdf_docs/ref24.pdf
http://www.dre.ca.gov/pdf_docs/ref24.pdf

It is a blantant violation for both the Landlord and Tenant. The Landlord should be made aware of the PM company response, because they put him in a vulnerable position.

It sounds like the main line going to the sewer is stopped up. It cost about 95 dollars to have someone clean the main pipe line. If I just wanted this fix quickly, I would call around get some prices and then get the people to rein bust me.

You have a sewer line or septic system blockage. Call the city health or code enforcement dept. and ask for an emergency inspection.

Why do not you talk with insurance company? They can suggest you something cuz they know this type of problem happened.

move ya dumb *****

Go down to the the mangement place with some of what's in your basement. Maybe they'll fix it then. That is unhealthy for everyone in the house. Make sure to take lots of pictures of whats going on down there. If they don't fix it...call get an estimate and take them to court. That should be a top rate emergency. When is the statment "I have S**t flowing into my basement ,"not a emergency. In the meantime, I would look for somewhere else to live. If that don't take care of this BIG problem then what happens when there is an even bigger one?