recurring leak from bathroom ceiling

[handtomouth]

Hi everybody. I'm new to posting to the forum but I've been lurking for awhile.

Here's the problem --

Every couple of weeks or so the bathroom ceiling leaks. The super comes periodically and "fixes" the problem by putting up spackle over the buckled and cracked paint and sometimes replacing the drywall after it dries.

The upstairs tenant is a very elderly man who lives alone (he's been there 60 years) and overflows the bathtub, forgets the water is running, etc.

I wish the guy no harm but I'm getting really tired of dealing with this and the band-aid fixes because the leaks keep happening. The guy upstairs apologizes and then keeps doing it. He claims it isn't his fault (maybe it's a leaky pipe?). Once he flooded my kitchen and closet when he left the kitchen sink running, ruining some of my stuff.

I'm getting really sick of this -- it's happened five times now. I'm tired of giving access to my apartment when the problem is coming from upstairs. I've come home to a big mess on several occasions and it's even flooded the apartment below me. Plus, I'm worried about getting electricuted -- the water comes down right through the bathroom ceiling light fixture, filling up the glass fixture with dirty water.

I'm also worried that one day the upstairs tenant might forget he left the gas on or something and the place might blow up. I think he should be in a nursing home or something.

The landlord knows about the situation and does nothing -- maybe he can't do anything? The super says he's old, and shrugs his shoulders. Meanwhile I feel like I'm paying a lot of money to live in bad situation. Otherwise, the building is old, but OK.

What should I do?

Can I claim that this is a breach of the warrant of habitability and break my lease to find a new apartment, if necessary? Would I lose my security deposit?

Or should I just put up with it?