06-22-2016: When things go wrong in your rental flat

Just a little update for those of you wondering why you haven’t seen a post for a few days.  No pics, just a long story.

Last Friday, the water in the flat started to lessen in pressure.  We didn’t think too much of it at first and went on about our business on our last day with Eve.  Saturday, after Eve’s departure, we just lazed around the flat and kept commenting to each other that the water was barely trickling out of the faucets.  On Sunday, after a few seconds of water dribble, then there was nothing.  Now, the household water is not potable, so we haven’t been drinking the tap water, except for boiling water for coffee and brushing our teeth.  But for washing dishes and showering, having just a trickle of water is a real issue.

I haven’t mentioned that the flat manager has been MIA since the day we arrived.  His sister has been our cleaning lady, who comes every week.  One week she told us that the flat manager no longer had a cellphone and to reach him with any issues, call her and she’d relay the message.  When the water problem became a serious problem, we called the cleaning lady.  We had to leave a message.  And, there was no return phone call.  We tried again, leaving a more forceful message.  We even texted her.  Nothing.  So, Christine started emailing the flat owners.  For the last several weeks, we had been getting emails from the owners about their problem in contacting the flat manager.  We became their messenger with the cleaning lady over the weeks, trying to get her to relay the message that the owners needed her brother to call them.  It got to be very uncomfortable being in the middle of all this.  But now, we needed help.

Christine went around to other flats in the building trying to find out if anyone was having water pressure issues.  From our next door neighbor, we learned how the water works in the building.  Each flat has its own holding tank up on the roof.  The water main feeds each tank, and through gravity, the tank water flows to the apartment.  There is a large ballcock in the tank that triggers the water main valve when the tank needs to be filled.  So, this water problem was unique to us.  The neighbor also told us that the cover to our tank, over the years, has been blown off and he has told our flat manager many times of this issue.  We thought that might have something to do with the problem.

Meanwhile, Christine is carrying on an email conversation with the flat owners.  This all means that we’re unable to leave the flat and go do anything because we needed to be communicating and planning how this was going to be fixed.  The cleaning lady was expected on Monday and we stayed in to be here when she came.  No big surprise that she was a no show since she hadn’t responded to any of our messages.

The owners contacted the building management company, thank goodness, and after some negotiating on Monday, the management company agreed to send a plumber over on Tuesday to see what the problem was.  Meanwhile, having heard from the neighbor about the cover blowing off our tank, I climb up a ladder on the roof and went to see our tank.  And boy, am I sorry I did that.  Seeing what was in our tank, and thinking about all the showers we had taken in that water, in addition to all the other things we used the water for, I’m surprised we’re not dead from poisoning.  Suffice to say, our water was disgusting.

Shortly after I came back to the flat, a very nice plumber knocked on our door and said he had been on the roof and looked at our tank.  Even he was creeped out by what he saw.  He did find that our water pressure problem was caused by air in the pipes and so he fixed that problem.  But, he advised us not to use the water for anything, including showering because he felt the water was dangerous.  Yikes!  He said the solution was to have the tank drained and disinfected.

So back to emails with the owners and calls to the management company.  Then, while all this was going on, there was a knock at the door and, surprise, there was our flat manager.  He was there to tell us that the cleaning lady was no longer working for him and he was here to drop off clean sheets and towels for us (no cleaning of the flat, though).  Then, did he ever get an earful from us!  He claimed he never got any messages from his sister and he knew nothing about the water problem.  After we explained everything, out the door he went saying that he would take care of it.  So, then more emailing back and forth with the owners to let them know the flat manager was back in the picture.  I think then there were even some phone calls with the owners.  One positive, though, is that we now have a cellphone number for the flat manager.

Wednesday, a couple of plumbers showed up who did the job of draining the tank and cleaning it, taking out the dead bird and whatever else they found.  They came to the flat and told us it would take a couple of hours for the water main to fill the tank.  We waited 3 hours and then ran the water.  The pressure was good, but the hot water smelled bad.  Of course, they had not drained the hot water tank, so it was full of the putrid water.  We then ran the hot water for several hours to empty and refill the hot water tank.  Eventually, by late evening, it appeared that all was okay with our water.

But what a 5 day nightmare this has been!  I really can’t believe that we didn’t get sick from that disgusting water.  If anything makes me want to get home, this experience certainly has.  I’m so glad that we were able to contact the owners, who have been very concerned and took action to take care of this problem.  They live in California, so they’ve had to deal with all this long distance.

We celebrated the end of our ordeal Wednesday night by going across the street to Peppi’s and having pizza and a pitcher of Sangria.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to enjoy our final week in Malta and leave on a much more positive note.