City sewage fills Madrona home, leaves homeowner desperate

A homeowner is worried she’ll lose her house after city sewage flooded her home.

The Madrona resident said roots from a city tree grew into a sewer line and clogged it, and sewage flooded her home. Now, seven months after the incident, the city has not fixed the hole in the road and is refusing to pay the full amount of the claim to fix the house.

Homeowner Frehiwot Bruce said that, since the first sewage backup happened at the end of October 2017, the house has been unlivable and has flooded two more times.

“I’m very frustrated. I’m very sad. I cannot sleep at night. I worry that I’m about to lose this property that I’ve taken care of for this long” Bruce said. She bought the house in 1993 and said she spent years making major renovations to the home.

Bruce uses the house as a rental property for supplemental income. But since the incident, she’s lost her tenants, and has been forced go into debt, taking out loans to keep up with the mortgage and other bills, which total about $3,000 a month.

She said she’s falling behind on her property taxes and worries she will lose the house.

Bruce said she kept expecting Seattle to do the right thing -- then Seattle’s claims office finally approved a settlement figure last week.

That’s when she found out the offer only covers a quarter of what it would cost to repair the house.

“I just didn’t know what that feeling is, I’ve never felt it before. I was in shock. I just couldn’t believe it,” Bruce said.

Seattle says it works to make sure taxpayer money is being used wisely, saying in an email, “The city’s primary goal during the entire claims process is to be thorough and fair.”

Bruce says what’s happening is anything but.

“It’s very personal,” she said. “It’s unbelievable and unfair. They just want me to trash this house, lose my equity, and lose the money I put into this house,” she said.

Bruce said she already spent about $5,000 on a professional cleaning and supplies and doesn’t have enough money to get the house cleaned again or to fix up the home.

“I am hoping the city will take responsibility,” Bruce said.

In an email, the city’s Department of Finance said it’s gone through “extraordinary measures to assist” Bruce, and said it’s offered her nearly $44,000 for mitigation, repairs, and loss of income from her tenants.

Bruce said the offer from the city doesn’t cover the sewage damage to the first floor of the house, the further loss of renter income from when repairs take place, and the amount of money she’s already spent trying to clean the house.

She’s also concerned the entire process took so long the damage may have continued to spread in the walls since the assessment.

SDOT did not respond by the time this story was aired with when the hole on Cherry Street would be fixed.

Below is the full response from a spokesperson with Seattle’s Department of Finance: 

Why did is it taking Seattle so long to deal with the claims process? 

There are several reasons the process has taken the time it has, including:

•    The claimant filed the claim more than a month after the event occurred.
•    Two departments had to conduct investigations.
•    The claimant was unable to document her damages.
•    The claimant added new areas of her home to her damages that had to later be removed because they were unproven, her tenant disputed areas where sewage entered that did not support upper floor claim; and mitigation and repair estimates had to be revised.
•    The claimant could not support her lost rental income – no lease agreements, no documentation of checks being cashed, etc. – says she was paid in cash. 

The City undertook extraordinary measures to assist the claimant, including hiring an outside adjuster to assist the claimant with documenting the damages and paying the side sewer repair company directly for its work.

Typically, the claimant is responsible for providing all documentation and paying for repairs and the City will reimburse. The claims adjuster has remained in close contact with all parties throughout the process.

What was the original assessment of damages done by the third-party company, and what is the city willing to pay (in terms of dollars)? 

Background:
The City hired a third party company to assist the claimant with documenting her loss. The claim originally noted only damage to the basement (and only the tenant of the basement claimed loss of contents to date). When the claimant met the third-party adjuster in late January, she then claimed sewage came from kitchen sink and upstairs toilet, causing damage on the second floor. A former tenant said he was unaware of sewage coming out of the upstairs sink. Additionally, claimant told claims manager that tenants may have flushed the stopped upstairs toilet repeatedly after the backup.

As such, the City is only considering damages to the basement in settlement.

The original estimate from the third-party adjustor included mitigation and repairs for the second floor. The total was $40,896.75. After backing the second floor out of the estimate, the third-party adjustor revised the estimate for structure repairs and mitigation costs to $22,355.32.

The City has offered the claimant $43,855.42* for mitigation, structure repairs, lost rental income, and appearance for the second floor (tracking of sewage). On Monday, she countered, wanting additional mitigation amounts she paid to an unknown person for unknown mitigation tasks. Claims adjuster has requested additional documentation. 

*This amount offered to the claimant is in addition to the amount the City paid directly to company that completed the side sewer repair, which was $52,707.07. 

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