A tenant contacted me, because he came home to find his unit filling up with steam. I assumed he may have been (slightly) over reacting, but when I actually came to see the situation, the place was filled with smoke so thick, you could not see.
Water was raining from his ceilings and most of his belongings were being soaked through from the steam. The cloud would eventually subside, only to start again as soon as the boiler powered up again (estimate every 20 minutes?)
The tenant had to leave on an urgent job out of town and left me the key to his unit (I am the head of the Tenant's Association).
I panicked and had an emergency plumber come in after 11pm. They replaced a corroded, inoperative radiator, dugs up his floors and found 2 broken steam pipes, but were unable to complete the job because they need landlord's permission to access the basement/boiler. They said there are more corroded pipes, and whoever worked on the boiler last left water in the system and set the pressure too high. The steam is worse than ever, and there is a hole in the floor with the broken pipe exposed, and the old radiator is in the way next to the new one.
I texted the only number I was given for the building manager at 1:30am in the morning. Steam has been filling up this tenant's apt all night and still no response at 7am.
Is it trespassing to force the super to allow access to the emergency plumber to complete this work? Mind you, this is a licensed private professional plumber, but not someone sent by the landlord or the city.
The tenants belongings are being ruined as I write this. Ridiculous situation. It has been implied by some that the owner us trying to damage the building to make this rent stabilized tenant 's home unlivable.
Should we proceed with our own plumber being that the owner/manager may have bad intentions?