After the second 'safe to return' was debunked, Chris Guthrie and Paige Duffney had realized a pattern, and they didn't trust management to properly handle the cleanup.
The Faribault couple hired ServPro to come take a look at their unit, the Village at Park Avenue's Unit 58, which flooded with a sewage backup June 2.
For $260 of their own money, they received an official determination that the place was destroyed and needed a thorough restoration that would cost nearly $18,000.
ServPro team member Randy Ray gave his analysis of the cleanup so far.
"A thorough evaluation of the aforementioned property was necessitated by an incident of sewage backup," he wrote in the assessment synopsis. "The primary etiology of the sewage backup remains indeterminate, originating from the toilet, potentially attributable to broader systemic issues within the municipal sewer infrastructure or internal sewer conduits."
The ServPro report found six key findings, including that the flooring "remained conspicuously damp" and that the moisture levels of the drywall "exhibited moisture levels exponentially exceeding normative thresholds," noting saturation levels up to 65% from four feet deep to seven feet high.
"An overpowering malodor permeated the premises, necessitating an industrial-grade sanitation and deodorization of all salvageable structural elements and contents," he wrote as one of the key findings.
To mitigate further damage, Ray had seven protocols laid out in his report. These included evaluating any salvageable items, removing "all sheetrock from zones exhibiting saturation," putting flood cuts into the sheetrock in all unaffected areas, removing all insulation from areas near removed sheetrock, detaching all baseboards in the residence and to "conduct a rigorous evaluation and removal of built-in structural materials as warranted by the extent of primary and secondary damages."
At the end of the report summary, he gave his conclusion.
"Prompt and exhaustive remediation measures are imperative to address the extensive damage precipitated by the sewage backup and prolonged moisture exposure," he wrote. "Adherence to the IICRC S500 standards will facilitate thorough restoration and preclude further deterioration."
Duffney said ServPro informed MetroPlains Area Manager Sue Geary of their findings. Geary denies hearing from ServPro.
"I have not seen any report," she said. "We hired renovations and they had tested it out, so I don't know who they hired. So ServPro was not our people."
In three visits by the Daily News since June 7, moisture and traces of mold has been clearly visible inside the window.
Other units
According to the property manager, MetroPlains Area Manager Sue Geary, flooding has been minimal and has had little impact on neighboring units.
"We took over the property eight years ago, so I don't know," she said. "It's only happened twice here. If there was anything in the other units, we had renovations come in immediately, within an hour and a half. And they worked all night to make sure everything was cleaned up and dried up. Most of the units, the other two units, really have hardly anything in there."
However, Faisa Abdi is the matriarch of a large family living in the unit next to Guthrie and Duffney at the time of the flood.
"The floods come all the time," she said. "Three times, the flood is dirty. The floods are horrible. The water is dirty. These kids are coughing."
She later noted that the flood earlier this month was the fourth time their unit had flooded with the "dirty" water, and that the first was in 2018 or 2019. Mold was visible on the trim in the unit.
Abdi said she was once charged over $7,000 for floodwater damage in the garage.
"(Management) said 'It's not our fault, the water,'" Abdi said. "(Management) said 'Move out or pay.'"
Julie Zitzmann lives in the next unit down.
"I've lived there 14 or 15 years," she said. "I know (the Guthrie-Duffney unit)'s flooded five times that I know of, and mine's flooded twice."
She said the first flood in her unit came from the Abdi family's unit five or six years ago, but the recent flood was different.
"Then, this time, it came through the wall and it also came up from under the floor in the bathroom downstairs," she said.
But Zitsmann said they never charged her for repairs to address the issue after the first one.
"They didn't really repair anything," she said. "I mean, they ripped the carpet out the last time."
Guthrie and Duffney's lawyer said the units affected by the recent flood appear to be the only units without carpet.
"It hasn't been ongoing," Geary said. "I mean, they lived there four years, and it's the first time it happened. I wouldn't consider that ongoing. And before that, you know, the city did a gravity line and fixed it. So I don't know what to tell you, because we don't know where it came from, other than the rain came really super fast and overworked the system or something. Just, I can't do what I don't know."
Alicia Stephens lives one unit down from Zitzmann.
"This is a bigger deal than what Paige and Chris are going through," she said.
Despite clearing the unit to return twice and attesting that the place had been cleaned in an hour and a half, Guthrie and Duffney were offered a new unit at the end of the week.
Their rent went up when they signed the new lease. Their belongings remain in the old unit, likely unrecoverable at this point.
Guthrie and Duffney face an uphill battle if they want to take legal action for their lost property, according to Mike Vraa, the managing attorney for Homeline, a nonprofit that offers free legal help to renters.
"That is really hard to do," he said. "So there's a lot of case law in Minnesota that makes it so even a landlord's negligence in dealing with the problem might not suffice. It is hard to go after a landlord for lost property. I think at a core, you need to show there's an ongoing problem the landlord knew about. … That's a baseline of what you'd need to have a claim."
For years, their kids were sick so often that Duffney said the school even called with concerns. Since getting into the new unit, their own and their kids' persistent respiratory issues cleared up.
Determining fault
Geary said the managing company wouldn't help with reimbursement for the destroyed property in the unit.
"That is up to them and their insurance company and those issues, which I'm not involved in," she said. "So we did our part as the management company, and we made sure that they were safe and in a new place, and paid for their motel. And as far as belongings, that's between them and renter's insurance."
Duffney's insurance company told her that it wasn't possible to get reimbursed until they determine fault. She even said a local insurance agent came out to the unit himself to assess the situation and see what coverage could be provided.
"'The sewer water came up through your house,'" Duffney remembered the insurance agent saying. "'We don't know where it started. That's the problem. So if the city did an investigation to figure out the origin, that would significantly help.' In the meantime, because we don't have any known origin, we have to wait for a field adjuster to come out to do a whole investigation now."
Vraa said that's a common reason for insurance agencies to use.
"That's probably going to be what they stay with, because that's what insurance companies do," he said. "Sadly, they always look for that escape clause. Where they go, 'Well, if it's that party that's responsible, then we can't pay.'"
Faribault Communications Director Brad Phenow said the city should be contacted right away in these situations.
"The city encourages individuals to contact the city when backups are discovered," he said. "Our Public Works Department has the ability to investigate the location of blockages/backups via vacuum trucks and cameras to determine if it’s within the property service line or within the city’s line. It’s important to note that these efforts are most effective while the backup is active."
He explained when the property owner is responsible for repairs to the pipes on their property's line.
"Property owners are responsible for any repairs on the service line from the property to the sewer main," he said. "Sanitary sewer line blockages are typically caused by roots, grease, and improper disposal of items, such as disposable diapers, paper towels, feminine hygiene products, washing machine lint or other items improperly flushed down the drain or toilet."
He said Public Works used a snake camera to check for any issues with the main sewer line connected to the property.
"On June 11, the city ran a camera through the 17th Street NW sanitary sewer main and found nothing abnormal," he said.
Historic flood
Two weeks later, historic floods hit Rice County.
A pump appeared at the entrance of Village at Park Avenue with a tube leading into the sewer. It was accompanied by an orange sign with the words "Danger: raw sewage spill."
At least one other neighborhood in Faribault experienced a sewage backup during the flood. At least two other pumps accompanied by the same signs appeared around the city.
Also during the historic flood, the Daily News visited the old Guthrie-Duffney unit. A small amount of water was again visible on the floor. The Abdi family said they also had some water in their unit that weekend.
The following week, management visited Duffney to ask when she was removing her things from the unit. According to Duffney, she was told anything left in the unit after July 2 would be thrown away.
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