A flooded basement has led to a messy rental situation for one Detroit family.
The basement started flooding slowly after the heavy rain last week, but the tenant’s tell 7 Action News the landlord is not addressing the issue.
Erika Steppes said her landlord with Ethical Real Estate and Property Management said a plumber was coming to fix the issue multiple times, but no one ever showed up.
"A two-month-old baby can't be in this house, smelling sewer water all day,” said Steppes.
Several days later a plumber did come out, but Steppes said the problem was beyond his expertise.
"He tried pumping the water out, but he was like, there's no point, I'll be here all night and the water will just keep coming up, there's a bigger issue,” said Steppes.
Fixing that bigger issue is now the problem.
She said she’s been going back and forth with her landlord. At one point she thought she might be getting evicted, now she’s not sure. She also said she turned down living at another property because she’s not going to be properly compensated for it.
"Why should I trust another one of your properties and we would have to move all of this stuff over there,” said Steppes.
She wants to be fully paid if she leaves or she wants this situation taken care of.
"I want to see her fix the basement or let us leave and give us all of our money back and let us leave,” said Steppes.
The property manager who answered at Ethical Real Estate and Property Management said she would not comment on tenant situations and she hung up without addressing what’s next for Steppes living situation.
