A South Florida man says he woke up in the middle of the night to find sewage pouring into his home. When a plumber told him a contractor blocked a pipe causing the damage, he called Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo (playing with his dog): \u201cSit. Good boy.\u201d<\/p>\n
George Saucedo and his family have opened their home to seven rescue dogs.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cEither showed up on the front door or somebody called and said \u2018Hey I found this dog we can\u2019t locate it\u2019s owner.’\u201d<\/p>\n
When they meet a dog who needs a home, they take it in.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cWe\u2019re not gonna send them to a shelter to maybe get put down, so they kind of get adopted and never leave. They are all family.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019re good family members.<\/p>\n
It was one of the dogs who alerted George to his problem late one night just a few months ago.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cMy dog starts barking like crazy. I\u2019m like \u2018OK, Somebody must be at the front door.\u2019 So I come downstairs and I\u2019m stepping in two inches of water.\u201d<\/p>\n
The downstairs was flooded. And the water was dirty.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo:\u201dThere\u2019s things in the water that you\u2019re like \u2018OK this is sewer, this is sewer coming up, this isn\u2019t coming out of a water pipe.’\u201d<\/p>\n
George shut the water off and got to cleaning.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cThe next three hours involved me mopping shop, [vacuuming], just trying to get the water up before it caused any damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he hired a plumber to find what happened.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cThey ran a camera through the tube and said \u2018You have 100% obstruction in the front yard from the sewer pipe that goes out to the street.’\u201d<\/p>\n
George says a company doing work in the neighborhood had damaged his sewer line and since the sewage had nowhere to go, it backed up inside the house.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cThis whole area right here was all dug up.\u201d<\/p>\n
George paid for the repairs himself. Almost $3,700.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cI didn\u2019t have a choice, we literally couldn\u2019t live in the house because we couldn\u2019t use any of the restrooms couldn\u2019t turn the water on, no faucets, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he reported the damage to the company who doing the work \u2026<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cPlease provide pictures and a copy of the invoice from the plumber for the repairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then, George says they went silent.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cThat was the last time I ever had them reach out to me about anything. I\u2019ve never spoken to anybody on the telephone.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s when he thought of Help Me Howard.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cThat would maybe it would trigger someone over there and say \u2018We better respond to this guy.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard, the damage is clear. Is the company responsible for the repairs?<\/p>\n
Howard Finkelstein: \u201cYes they are. Contractors can sometimes claim a pipe was old or already compromised. That\u2019s why a camera inspection is key. It shows if the break was caused by negligence or natural wear and tear. In this case, the pictures tell the story. The company working on George\u2019s property damaged the sewer line so they are responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n
We called the company and left a message.<\/p>\n
The very next day, the owner paid George a visit.<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201c\u2018I wanted to come over as soon as I found out and give you a check. I apologize for the delay and the damage it caused to you and I hope that everything is OK now.’\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all George wanted: for the money he\u2019d spent making the repairs to be paid back to him. <\/p>\n
Glad we could help!<\/p>\n
George Saucedo: \u201cI think that made all the difference in the world. I was running around chasing my tail for months and then all the sudden get the right people involved and the team and everything and it gets solved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Companies have the right to be on your property to fix things, that\u2019s called an easement. But you should always make a note as to who\u2019s there in case something happens. Because if something goes wrong, it might not show up right away.<\/p>\n
Got a problem? Need a hand? Here\u2019s how to 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 man says he woke up in the middle of the night to find sewage pouring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-434339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434339","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=434339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com<\/a>
Reporter: Brandon Beyer at bbeyer@wsvn.com<\/a>
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN<\/p>\n