Bronx family demands landlord take action after years of constant flooding

A Bronx family is demanding answers from their landlord after constant flooding in their Wakefield apartment for nearly a decade.

News 12 Staff

Sep 27, 2022, 9:24 PM

Updated 746 days ago

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A Bronx family is demanding answers from their landlord after constant flooding in their Wakefield apartment for nearly a decade.
The McIntosh family says they’ve faced flooding issues at 4382 Furman Ave. for seven years.
“Usually, it comes up quietly. So, you'll just come to use the bathroom and realize you're stepping in water,” says Cecile Mcintosh.
She says water comes up from the bathtub drain and floods the bathroom floor every few weeks.
The flooding the family woke up to on Tuesday was worse than usual.
“You could hear the water running…I thought it was my son getting in the shower to leave,” Mcintosh says.
She says the dirty water was running through their entire third-floor apartment this time.
The building’s management office told News 12 the superintendent came to the apartment Tuesday to drain the water. They added that the issue cannot be resolved because the tenants refuse to regularly plug the drain that is clogged by hair.
McIntosh says her family has plunged and snaked the drain, but hair isn't the issue. She wears a wig, and her husband doesn’t have much hair.
“They are trying to blame us. We are not plumbers, we are tenants. We are paying our rent, and we are expecting to live in decency. We need a place to live like we're human beings,” McIntosh says.
News 12 reached out to the management office to request an additional written statement on whether they would be taking any further steps to repair the issue, but they denied it.