I rent an apartment, and the outside of the building was recently painted?

Question

I have a little "patio" outside my back door, where I keep my kids bikes and trash can and such. Well, the painters got paint all over my kids bikes. They're only small little kids bikes, $35 for one and $20 for the other. But should I complain to someone about the paint? Shouldn't they have asked me to move any of my stuff that was gonna get paint on it? Should they have to pay for ruining these bikes, or was it my responsibility?
I just bought them on christmas, so they were fairly new...

i was not given notice, either by mouth or with a letter.

Answer 1

i'd say you could complain to management about it. make absolutely sure beforehand that they never did send you a letter or leave a flyer on your door or anything, but anyhow, that's pretty unprofessional. you might as well complain. maybe they'll do something about it. if not, like you said, they didn't cost that much, i don't think it's worth taking it much further. but it is aggravating!

Answer 2

Most of the time, a written announcement will be made to the tenants informing you of the scheduled painting. The announcement *should* include details, which areas are getting worked on and notice to bring personal belongings inside. If you were given notice, you are SOL. If not, then absolutely make them pay for the damage. If I were you, I would make them pay for the damage and then let the kids ride the bikes as is (or with stickers or spray paint to hide the damage). Afterall, the amount of time its going to take you to get refunded if probably more valuable than $55.00.

Answer 3

Legally they owners or the apartment manager have to give everyone a notice of work being done within 24-48 hours. If anything is to be moved it should be stated in the letter. If the paint company won't pay then you need to go to small claims court. But, being that you don't own then you are going to need to go through the apartment complex for any kind of letters that were to be sent out.

Answer 4

I am a paint contractor, and yes, they are responsible if you were not asked to move your items by either word of mouth.notification on your door, or mail.I have painted many of these complexes from small to huge, and we always had to post flyers one..a week before we were going to be on that particular building, and then again the day before we began that building..our flyers were posted on each door of each building them two times...Sometimes the apartment complex management did this, but we followed it up with our own as well....When we bid these buildings in our contract it states we are not responsible to move peoples personal belongings,due to the fact of the liability of breaking thier personal property...but we do also list in the contracts that flyers will be posted these two particular times, or the apartment management will post flyers(and again we posted more for a back up..)We made exceptions for the disabled and elderly unable to move thier items as long as they signed a waiver making us not responsible for breakage, and they had to allow us to take thier items inside thier own apartment, for we had no place to store them..but yes..if you received no notification they were going to be on your building that particular day..they are responsible..first, find out if the painters were under contract through a paint company, or if the apartment management was hiring them hourly...hourly workers are not due to be directly responsible, but thier bosses..wether it be the paint company or the management..If it is a paint contractor..get ahold of the owner, and request it be cleaned without dulling or marring the surface of the bicycles in mind..give them a chance to correct it..if the apartment complex hired hourly workers, then go to the management and request the same..if not resolved you can then only go to small claims court..which in the value of the items is only 55.00 it may be unworth the time to go to court etc over this..

Answer 5

Call the painting company and tell them what happend if they comply and take care of the damages than you should be ok if not you could go to small claims court

Answer 6

Now, honestly, were the bikes ruined?

Yes, you should have received some kind of notice.

Answer 7

You should ask this question in law part of answers? I wouldn't know...but I sure would raise cane with the landlord especially if you didn't know they were going to paint.