My Landlord Took 9 Days To Fix The Sewage In My Only Bathtub. Maintenance Left The Tub A Mess, And I Injured Myself Cleaning It.

Location: Wauwatosa, WI. I'm sorry, it's a bit of a long title and story. I am disabled and have lived in this apartment for over 3 years. It's owned by a large rental company in the area.

On October 9th, I woke up to black sludge all over my tub. I tried entering a maintenance request on the app, but it wouldn't go through. So I texted the landlord to have it fixed, and they said they put in a request. No one came for 9 days, even with me texting them daily, asking for any information on when it would be fixed. I missed 5 days of work because I was unable to shower and eventually cleaned it as much as I could so that I could shower.

Last Friday, the 16th, I came home from work to find the tub full of sewage again, and the drain strainer was removed. I thought maybe the maintenance person had come and left to get a part or something, but by 9 pm, I realized he wasn't coming back to clean up the mess. The work order had no info and hadn't been closed out, though. But when I ran the shower, the water was now draining properly.

I attempted to clean up the maintenance person's mess so I could bathe myself. I have limited use of my legs and can't squat, kneel, or bend which makes this difficult, and I had told my landlord several times that I'm disabled to where it's dangerous for me to clean up messes like this in the tub. I had sprayed it down with cleaning products and was attempting to clean it, and I fell in. I also had the shower running as hot as it could.

Because of the sewage, cleaning chemicals, water, and my disability, it took me 20 minutes to get myself out of the tub. I have bruises and scrapes, plus pain in my shoulder from falling on it. Not to mention, I'm just traumatized over what had happened. I immediately texted my landlord with pictures of what was left in my tub and also my handprints in sewage that show my struggle getting out and my injuries. I explained what happened and reminded them again that I'm disabled and had no other way to bathe myself.

They kept apologizing and said the work order wasn't closed yet and probably that someone would be coming to finish the job. Nobody has contacted or came since. I will probably have to attempt cleaning the mess again tonight so that I can shower, but I'm also scared. Is there any legal remedy that I can get for this? Also, if I do take action against them, could they evict me for it?