lexboi250

iTrader: (10)

I'm officially stranded....

So I get up this morning, nice day, about to head out. As I'm standing by the car, I noticed a rat running from my car towards to the exit of the stairs in the parking lot of my condo garage. Now I've seen the rat before, and informed management about it, they then assured me that they got rid of the problem and the rat is no longer there. Obviously, that's not the case today.

So I said fine, I'll wait until Tuesday, and have to call them again. I got in the car, started up, and notice my "check VSC" light is on, the "check AWD" is on, "traction control" light is one, and the "ABS" light is on as well. I was a bit stunned because when I drove it a few days ago it was fine. So I proceed to open up the hood, and guess what I find (you can see pictures below as well), mr. rat have build their home in the corner underneath my hood. I was pretty furious at that point, as I can also smell something burnt, the car is definitly not drivable.

As angry as I am, I held it down and called my building manager also the land lord, explained to him the problem that I was assued that this issue was originally resolved, but now it's gotten worse that the rat built their home in my car. He said there's nothign he can do right now which was complete BS, and that I should call him on Tuesday and discuss further, in the mean time he mentioned that I should go through my insurance, which I told him i'm not going to do, because it's not anything that I've done to my car. they should be the one that take care of everything in terms of damages and so forth.

You guys can imagine what it feels like to find this type of things in your car, and for the long weekend, I can't even rent a car because everywhere's sold out. So as for my plans, there are a few dinners I'm supposed to go to which I can't anymore. I have to deal with the condo management next week about this, was hoping if anyone have any suggesstions as to what I shoudl look for and some of the approach in terms of dealing with stuff like this. Here are some of the pictures, looks like santa claus arrived early:

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

wtf..........that sucks man.

nairb

iTrader: (1)

Holy ***** man. That is unbelievable.

I would suggest, although it sounds kind of weird, find out how long it takes a rat on average to create a nest. Point being that if you told your land lord a week or w/e ago that there was a rat and he said the problem was solved...then you find out it takes a rat more than a few hours to build a nest then you can maybe claim the condo is responsible because they lied about the problem being solved. If you had known there was still a rat you can argue you would have taken care of it yourself and thus avoided the problem.

But if it takes a rat a relatively short period of time to build a nest, I don't see how you would have a claim. Thing to consider would be, if you park your car in a lot and go to work, then come back to find a nest in your hood, the lot can not be blamed (they cant watch your car like a hawk for 8-10 hours while you work). However if it takes more than a few days to build such a nest then you have something to work with, since the guy assured you the problem was taken care of.

Also check your condo contract and see what kind of rights you have as far as property damage goes. I am not familiar with renters insurance but you rent the place and store your stuff, I don't see how a car is any different from say a TV that would be covered on a B and E.

Keep us posted! Sorry to hear this happened man, good luck working it out.

vinconist

iTrader: (9)

wow sorry to hear/see...your check engine light is pobably form a crewed up sensor wire...i would check the o2 sensor (4 of them) lines and the MAF line for cuts, and even if u need to replace a sensor, its like 20 bucks for a denso one

jtsst

same thing happened to me but the nest was in the front bumper

brociouz

iTrader: (65)

WTF!!! That's absolutely nuts.

edgeucated

iTrader: (4)

this is the second time this has been reported on CL. the first time, the OP had a rat nest on his battery

jnemo

DAM! WTF!
that is so ef*ed up!!
man, sorry to hear about what happened, but best of luck to you.
Hope the landlord or manager gonna take care of it.

Phresh2010

iTrader: (3)

how did the rat get underneath your hood? im curious to know how the rat lived under your hood while your were driving, or mayb it wasnt there while you were driving

chikoo

and what is that White stuff?

prankster

iTrader: (3)

^Yeah... What the hell is that white stuff? Looks like some kind of foam.

gveng

so what's where you keep your "stash"

Sffd103

iTrader: (16)

Sorry to see that. It actually hurts to see/hear. Hope all goes well!

RRocket

Man....time to move out of the ghetto....

lexboi250

iTrader: (10)

Thanks for all the comments guys. Yes, it sucks, I was fuming when I saw it, basically, their negligence has casued all of this to happen. When I first discoverd the rat, they claimed that they put rat poison around my parking spot, and it killed it, which I never believed them in the first place. And now this happened, i'm just pissed that they didn't seem to care at all, which I warned them the first time that if the rat is not gone, it may get inside the car and cause damages.

also, the garage is a private garage that's connected to a public parking underground garage, management said the rat entered thru the connected garage door when it opens and closes. Also, beside where I park is there all the recycle bin containers sit, although the condo people keep it pretty clean, I still think that was part of the issue.

Another thing is, my car is the lowest here in the lot, and that rats probably feel a lot safer hiding under my car than say picking a SUV or something.