Illinois Condo - Common Areas Repair

[chicagocondo]

What is the name of your state? Illinois

Hello,

I am going through a bit of trouble with my property manager for my condo and wanted to see if I could get some questions to my answers...

A few weeks ago, my 2nd floor condo had a leak due to a broken washer in my unit (I am not the owner of the unit, but the unit is owned my another family member who resides out of the country the majority of the year) The water caused damage to our own unit as well as the 1st floor unit directly below us.

When it came to paying damages, we agreed to reimburse the 1st floor owner for his $500 insurance deductible with the owner's agent agreeing that it would be all that we would have to pay him for damages. However, his insurance company did not cover repairs to common areas (which I was told is normal), so the building's property manager would have to reimburse them for any common area repairs. The property manager came and knocked on my door the same day I spoke to the 1st floor owner and made the deductible payment, basically requesting that I make $1,500 payment on the damages incurred from the incident. I stated to him that I needed to speak with the owner regarding any payment to be made.

I was asked by the owner to request a receipt of the common area repairs and not to return any calls to the property manager until they sorted everything out. I was not sent a receipt, but rather a copy of the estimate for the repairs and a copy of an e-mail between the property manager and his attorney stating that my only options were to pay his client (the property management company) for repairs OR have his client make payment to the 1st floor owner's insurance company and then request payment from me within 30 days of them making the payment.

In the meantime, I discussed the incident with a few people, one of them being my wife's coworker who is part of a condo association board at his own residence. I was informed by him that the property manager should not have just shown up requesting payment, rather, he should have obtained at least 3 estimates for the repairs to be done to the common areas, submit them to the owner of my condo, a decision would be made in agreement by both parties to see who the repairs would be performed by, and then payment could either be directly requested from the owner of my condo OR the property manager would have to make a deductible payment for the repairs and then request payment from my condo's owner to cover the repair.

So, now I am stuck in a bad situation where the owner of my condo has caused me to have poor relations with the property manager. The owner of my condo is contemplating giving in and paying the full requested amount at this time without putting up any type of fight, but I decided to post on here to see if any could obtain any more advice regarding this situation.

My questions basically are whether or not this situation was handled correctly by the owner of my condo and the property management and if the situation would present the owner of my unit with any leverage to reduce the amount to cover repairs.

[xylene]

The condo owner is responsible if they own the washing machines.

You are responsible for the flood if if was caused by your negligence or you own the machines.

You need to have renters insurance and condo owners needs to have insurance too. They would and should be sorting this out.

If you or the condo owner are responsible you owe the downstairs neighbor his deductible AND his insurer can and will come after you for what they paid on the claim.

As to the common areas you or the own owe the money, if it is not covered by your or the owners insurance as applicable.

[chicagocondo]

Originally Posted by xylene

The condo owner is responsible if they own the washing machines.

You are responsible for the flood if if was caused by your negligence or you own the machines.

You need to have renters insurance and condo owners needs to have insurance too. They would and should be sorting this out.

If you or the condo owner are responsible you owe the downstairs neighbor his deductible AND his insurer can and will come after you for what they paid on the claim.

As to the common areas you or the own owe the money, if it is not covered by your or the owners insurance as applicable.

Thank you for your response.

I understand that the downstair's neighbor's insurance company could come after me for what they paid on the claim, however, I was already assured by the owner that his insurance would not do so (his family works for/owns the company).

I really just need to know whether the situation allows the owner of my condo to reduce their amount of liability to the property manager because of the lack of estimates requested for the common area repairs and whether what the advice given to us by my wife's coworker holds any truth.

[HuAi]

the owner has no say in what company the building hires to repair the damage. if you think that the estimate is grossly inflated compared to the damage caused, request them to get a second estimate.