This winter’s cold streaks have caused more water pipes to freeze and flood apartment rooms than in recent years. Landlords and their tenants have had to put up with the inconvenience of extensive property damage.

After the water freezes in the pipe, the pipe bursts and allows water to flood into the rooms. If the room happens to be on an upper-level floor, the water flows down to other floors causing damage to the walls and carpet.

“This has been the worst year for us,” said a representative of Triplett Real Estate and Insurance.

Frozen pipes usually occur when residents leave a window open and leave the heat turned off.

“The best way of preventing [the flooding of apartments] is by keeping the heat on and windows closed at all times,” said Eve Cochran, of Eve Cochran and Associates.

Cochran said once the pipes burst, water floods the apartment and causes damage to the whole building. Replacing the damaged furniture, carpet, walls and other personal belongings can be expensive, he said.

Because apartments are usually more than one level, it is not ordinary when more than one room is affected by the pipes bursting.

Gary Denner of Professional Property Management said, “The water will drain down to the floors below as well as flooding the room where the pipes break.”

Marla Jenkins, a senior living in an apartment on Lynn Avenue has recently had her apartment flooded during winter break.

“A pipe froze and burst in the apartment above us, and the water leaked down into our apartment,” she said.

The landlord did clean and dry the apartment before she returned from winter break, but she has not received reparations yet.

“We have talked to our landlord about it, and he told us that we should receive them soon,” Jenkins said.

When tenants are at fault, they usually do not receive any reimbursement from the landlord when personal property is damaged.

In most cases, tenants receive reparation for damaged property if the resident has homeowners insurance.

When the flooding occurs at the fault of insufficient facilities or at the fault of another resident, the tenant usually receives reparations.

In order to prevent freezing pipes and flooding of rooms, some apartment complexes require tenants to keep the room temperature above 60 degrees at all times to prevent problems with freezing pipes.

“In our lease, we require the resident to keep the room temperature at at least 55 or 60 degrees,” Denner said.