A South Florida hairstylist is facing a big bill after a flood in her studio. Her landlord says it was her hose, so she\u2019s on the hook. But she says it\u2019s not her fault. It\u2019s tonight\u2019s Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs knew from an early age she wanted to be a hairstylist. She started out doing her own hair.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cAnd then my friends and I was like \u2018I\u2019m kind of good at this maybe I\u2019ll take it seriously, and professionally\u2019 and I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went to school, got her license, now she\u2019s her own boss.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cThe freedom, like my schedule. I can just do whatever I want. I can take off when I want, make what I want, the freedom, not being controlled by someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the past year, she\u2019s rented a little space in large building and grown her business.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cAnd then everything was fine until it wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
When late one Saturday night there was a leak under her sink.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cMy shampoo hose broke in the middle of the night and flooded half of the building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several studios got water in them. Thousands of dollars in damages.<\/p>\n
The woman she rents from seemed to be understanding.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cInitially, she told me that it was a freak accident, it could happen to anyone. I wasn\u2019t being negligent.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then she got an email.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cSaying it is in fact my responsibility and I have to pay for the damages.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then came a demand letter, claiming her hose was rusty and asking for $9,000.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh says the buildings handyman installed her sink and had just cleaned the hair trap days before the leak.<\/p>\n
She says he never said anything about the hose.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cIf there was something wrong, why wouldn\u2019t you say something to me? That tells me that he didn\u2019t see that there was anything wrong. It was working perfectly fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard, floods are awful and so expensive. Is Toni-Leigh underwater?<\/p>\n
Howard Finkelstein: \u201cThe landlord has what the law calls \u201cthe burden to prove\u201d the tenant was negligent. To prove she didn\u2019t properly maintain the sink and the hose, which could be difficult since Toni-Leigh says the handyman recently cleaned it and says there was no mention of a rusty hose. If she was not negligent, she is not responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Toni-Leigh says she wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cA hundred percent. I think she knows in her heart of hearts she has a plumbing issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says while she hopes it doesn\u2019t come down to it she\u2019s not afraid to go to to court.<\/p>\n
Next month, she says she\u2019s moving into a new space to make a fresh start.<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh Jacobs: \u201cI feel like my job and just this space has always been my happy place. And I\u2019m just ready to get out of here and for this to just be over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toni-Leigh has insurance and she\u2019s filed a claim. That could help, but Howard says they too will only have to pay if she was negligent.<\/p>\n
Got a problem? Need a hand? Here\u2019s how you find us below. It\u2019s Help Me Howard. I\u2019m Brandon Beyer, 7News.<\/p>\n
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n \tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Florida hairstylist is facing a big bill after a flood in her studio. Her landlord says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-287043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Email:\u00a0helpmehoward@wsvn.com<\/a>
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