SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife woman says Northern Property REIT, her landlord, left her to fend for herself after burst pipes caused her apartment to flood earlier this week.

Margaret Beauchamp stands in a puddle where the carpet was stripped two days after her pipes burst. Beauchamp said she was shocked when Northern Property refused to put her up in a hotel after her apartment flooded. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo

Margaret Beauchamp, wife of late former city fire chief Mickey Beauchamp, said she came home from shopping for furniture on Monday night to find water leaking in the hallway in front of her bathroom.

Beauchamp said she immediately looked for a manual shut-off valve to stop the leak but soon discovered that there weren't any installed.

She then contacted Northern Property who sent two maintenance workers to fix the leak, along with a clean-up crew to mop up some of the water. But just a few hours after they left, one of the fixtures which they had replaced burst.

"I heard a loud bang ... We came out and the water was just pouring out from underneath the sink," she said.

"By the time they got here my apartment was already an inch or two underwater and (it) had gone out into the hall."

Crews returned to fix the pipes about an hour later but by then there had already been extensive damage to the apartment and her furniture.

"It's so damp and it smells terrible," Beauchamp said, who added that her cold water has since been turned off while she has no running water at all in her shower.

The next day Northern Property offered to move Beauchamp into another apartment for the remainder of her lease. However, she was told that she would have to pay an additional $50 a month to make up for the difference in rent.

Beauchamp, who recently had to take two weeks unpaid medical leave from her job at the Centre for Northern Families, said she supports herself with a single source of income and cannot afford the markup.

"It's been awful. I've been a tenant for over a year. I've been really co-operative. I don't know what I've done to deserve this," she said.

Northern Property did not return a request for comment by press time.

With conditions in the apartment being as bad as they were, Beauchamp decided to stay in a hotel on Tuesday night. Beauchamp said she was shocked Northern Property refused to help her cover the cost of a room.

"They said it wasn't their responsibility," she said.

"I started to cry and I raised my voice and said 'why are you doing this to me? I didn't break the pipes.'"

After seeing a video of the burst pipes leaking in the apartment on Youtube, Beauchamp's son posted his own video of the damage on the video website. Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins went to meet with her at her home and contacted Todd Cook, CEO of Northern Property, on her behalf.

Later that afternoon Beauchamp received a call from Northern Property saying that they would put her up in a hotel until Friday.

"This was all Robert's doing," she said.

"I don't want to say I made them do it, but I certainly brought every pressure to bear to make them act," said Hawkins.

"That's my job: to make sure I'm there when people need help."

Even with a roof over her until the end of the week, Beauchamp said she is worried about where she will end up living as of Saturday.

"The problem isn't solved," she said.

"I have a place to sleep sure but I need a place to live,"

She said this is the second time burst pipes have forced her to move from a Northern Property apartment in the last year.

She has also made three requests for her landlord to replace a broken fire alarm in her hallway over the past five months, but no action has been taken

"It's all adding up," she said.

She said she will be submitting a complaint to the rental officer to seek compensation for her hotel room, damages to her property and lost wages incurred as a result of the leak.

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