Flooded basement in rental - leave it or clear it?

project_c · 12 February 2019 at 5:09PM

We've recently moved out of our rented flat, have to hand keys back to agent in about 3 days. Flat has a basement full of our stuff, but when we went down to pack it all up, we found that the entire basement was flooded, about a foot of standing water, lots of our stuff submerged. Landlord claimed this is 'water table' and nothing unusual.

Plumber comes out, water is pumped out, a leak from a drainage pipe is discovered - nothing to do with 'water table' of course. Basement smells pretty bad, it's not a waste pipe from a toilet but it doesn't smell good, it's drainage from basin / bath / shower, not sure if from our flat or another flat in building, but it's definitely dirty water, and all our stuff is soaked in it.

To me, this means all our stuff is contaminated and I don't want to touch any of it, it's a health hazard and this is a maintenance / buildings issue, and no longer my problem. I have insurance which covers me for my belongings, so I'm not massively bothered, but agent is implying that I will still need to remove my belongings.

My question is: should I wade into the smelly basement and clear out my stuff, or - as this is a maintenance issue - should I leave it to the landlord to sort out? I am on good terms with both the landlord and agent, but I don't want to risk my health and deal with contaminated stuff, especially as the leak was not caused by anything we did wrong. Do I just leave it all behind, or should I be responsible for getting rid of it all?

Comms69 · 12 February 2019 at 5:17PM

Technically you are responsible for clearing it.

In practice I'd offer a £50 contribution to the cost as the LL will need to have the place cleared for repair anyway