Please help!!

Saturday morning (October 13, 2007) My toilet over flowed into my apartment.
I could not turn the water off because the knob behind the toilet was rusted
in place and was detaching from the wall. It over flowed for about 30
minutes before I finally got the knob to budge and turned off the water. Needless to say, areas of my carpet were soaked with dirty toilet
water. I called maintenance immediately, but the emergency maintenance man
lives over 45 minutes away and he didn\'t get here until 3.5 hours after the
incident happened (so the water in the bathroom had leaked into the carpet
by this time). He brought a vaccuum and got about 2 gallons of water out of
the carpet. He tried to tell us he got it all and it was clean water. The
water was nearly black and two hours later I rented a carpet cleaner and
sucked up about another 3 gallons of water (i\'d estimate it was about 20
gallons total that spilled into the carpet.) It is now 4 days later and the
carpet is still wet and musty smelling. The only thing the landlord is
offering to do is bring us a fan. Do they have to replace the carpet?
Isn\'t this some sort of health code violation? I\'d think we\'ll get sick
after months of living in this bacteria/wet/dirty carpet...

[OHlandlord]

The LL is not responsible for your toilet being clogged. That drain was clear when you took possession of the unit, wasn't it? On a weekend, the maintenance staff is usually not working and there will be a normal delay in any needed maintenance. I suggest you rent a carpet cleaner and use an antibacterial cleaner on the carpet in the bath. Then run a fan over the area for several days as well as run the A/C constantly for the same period (the A/C acts as a dehumidifier). If necessary, pull up a corner of the carpet to allow air to circulate under the carpet, then fasten it back down afterward. Since you caused the toilet to overflow, you will be responsible if the carpet needs replaced. In future, keep a plunger in the bath to unstop any clogs and try shut off valves at least a few times per year to be sure they work.