Some Vt. business owners hit by flooding blame landlords for slowing reopening

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – It’s been five months since devastating flooding hit Vermont. While many Montpelier businesses managed to reopen, others are still struggling. And some are blaming the owners of their buildings.

When the July flooding hit, no one knew what to expect. Some people lost their homes while others lost their businesses.

Many downtown Montpelier businesses managed to reopen pretty quickly while others are still facing challenges.

“This process has been grueling, humbling, frustrating,” said Jenny Sebold, the owner of Rebel Heart and Pink Shutter.

Sebold has been working relentlessly to get her store back and running like it used to, but her plan isn’t going the way she thought it would.

“You know just going through the flood to begin with and like seeing your dream that you created and invested your whole heart and hands and sweat and dollars and to wash away… is really intense,” Sebold said.

Not only is she going through a hard time but so is Bobbie Roehm of Roam on Langdon Street. They both happen to be tenants of Vermont Rental Solutions.

“It’s been really daunting to say the least,” Roehm said.

Roehm says it’s been a difficult process to try to bring her store to life again.

“Five months later still not being open is really difficult and it’s been stressful, you know a lot of tears, a lot of frustration, it’s been really hard,” Roehm said.

She’s been frustrated with her landlord, telling us fixes weren’t done fast enough. And she’s still been paying rent. She’s in talks with the landlord to try to reach a deal.

“I just felt like I was already losing so much money because we weren’t able to be open that to pay rent on top of it felt like it was just adding insult to injury,” Roehm said.

I reached out to Vermont Rental Solutions for an on-camera interview, but they declined. However, they emailed a statement saying materials and labor shortages held up the repairs, and that moving electrical, heating, replacing the floors, etc., can add a lot of additional work to the project. They also say when a 400-square-foot space opens up and people wonder why a 4,000-square-foot space is not open yet shortly after, it’s evident they are unaware of what this kind of rebuild entails.

On the other hand, Sarah DeFelice owns Bailey Road. She got her store up and running two months after the flood and is taking advantage of the shoppers looking for deals during the festive season.

DeFelice says the good relationship with her landlord is a reason why she was able to open quickly.

“I feel like some stores in town… it’s almost like butting heads with the landlord. And this was definitely how can we help each other, we’re in this together,” DeFelice said.

Her landlord, Tim Heney of Heney Realtors, says getting help from the outside was beneficial.

“A good group of contractors we work with found others that were willing to help. We’re still working on it, you know, five-and-a-half months later and we still have four to six crews a day working, so it’s an ongoing effort,” Heney said.

“A lease is a contract,” said Jared Carter of the Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Carter says it is difficult for tenants to do anything beyond what’s provided in the written lease.

“That means it can be very hard, unfortunately, for tenants who are dealing with the impacts of the flood to force their landlords to you know, get things repaired by a certain time or to withhold rent if things aren’t repaired by a certain time unless that’s in the lease provision,” Carter said.

As for Roehm, she says she hopes to have her store open again in March after all of the hassle.

While Sebold considered moving, she says she wants to stay because of the people in the city.

“I know so much more about my community,” she said. “I know when babies are born, I know when spouses die, I know when people get married, get engaged or promoted.”

Sebold is optimistic she will reopen in February.

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