Please help, water damage

[jlmagalong]

What is the name of your state? WA.
5 weeks ago my husband woke up at 5 am to a weird noise. He went into the guest bedroom of our condo to check and found water coming from the ceiling. He knew it was their water heater because a few years ago ours blew and it was a mess. We live on the bottom unit so the only damage was to our own condo, however. Anyway, he ran up and banged on the door till finally they answered. No one knew what the water main was, so he asked if he could come in and turn it off. They let him in and he stopped the flow. There was quite a bit of water on the carpeted floor at this point, and he told the tenants to call the owner (they are renting-and very, very young) to get a plumber out there and someone to remove the water etc. He went to work about 30 minutes later and I tried to clean up and catch any more of the leak from the ceiling before I had to go to work. After about an hour or so I realized all that time I hadn't heard much noise upstairs, and I listened for some evidence of workers or anyone attempting to clean up the mess. I heard nothing, and thought I would at least give them some more time to get everything going before I took any further action. At 8:00 am I decided to call our property management company because I was concerned they weren't doing anything to repair the damage. They were great and assured me I could go to work and leave a key and they would get everything taken care of. When I got home, I found out that indeed a plumber had come in and replaced their hot water heater, and the Servicemaster employees had begun our drying out process, but the owner had burst on to the scene around 11:00 am and demanded all of the help out of her place, claimed there was no water damage to either her condo, and proceeded to come down to mine, run in the front door to the guest room and tell the clean up crew there was absolutely nothing wrong with the ceiling (which now was cut wide open revealing huge water stains.) The story is even longer, but will try to condense for your sake, but for the remaining 3 days of that work week, they tried to dry out everything from our unit without any access to hers. She wouldn't allow it and wouldn't allow the tenants to let anyone in. The property management "officials" finally came here 6 days later because I e mailed them that there'd been no one coming to my place anymore, and definately not the upstairs unit as I had taken 2 days off work to make sure to be there in case they needed me for anything, but no one ever arrived. The Property managers surveyed our home, then went upstairs to "talk" to the renters. They still wouldn't let anyone in and said there was nothing even damp inside their unit. Weird, since our ceiling was stilll wet. After they went back to the office, they called and told me the owner was being very difficult, but that's all they would say. Then, the guys came in three days in a row trying to assess and dry out from down here. The leader of the servicemaster team left me detailed notes explaining how they were trying to handle the situation. He wouldn't comment on progress upstairs. They didn't come back after that week. It was now 10 days after the initial flood. I didn't hear from the property manager until I finally tried to touch base on the 11th day. She e mailed me a message that the owner was having her own people in trying to dispute the meter readings they had done, and claiming the leak must be from another source inside the walls. She told me not to worry, they were taking the necessary steps and I didn' t need to do any more work. I followed directions, waited, watched, saw nothing and no one and still had these huge holes in my ceiling. I finally got fed up last week and began calling to find out the progress. I left 4 messages total, one on each day of the week just asking for an update, and I was very careful to give them more than ample time to just leave me a message. I got no response whatsoever. I left another message today asking if I needed to contact my insurance or lawyer as I still don't know what is going on and no one will return my calls. Nothing. We pay our homeowner's dues faithfully, maintain a clean condo and abide by all the rules, but I cannot believe they aren't even going to acknowledge us! I don't know what to do at this point. I just wanted them to fix it. I asked them several times for the owner's information, and they will not give it to me. I also asked (again) for a copy of the declarations as they have been amended and they offer to send you a copy for a fee, but I have now asked 4 times over the past 2 years with no response. What should I do? Should I tell the HOA via letter of my experience? Can I just repair it myself and send the bill to someone? What is the best avenue to pursue? I have absolutely no background in this kind of problem, and I just really wanted to work it out, I felt so fortunate my husband had the foresight to catch it so early and basically save both of our condos, but now I am seriously doubting if it wouldn't have been better just to allow the tank to empty completely, since maybe that would've been enough water to capture someone's attention. Please, if you have any advice, I am at the end of my rope and would appreciate any suggestion.

Many Thanks,

JWhat is the name of your state?

[seniorjudge]

Cut this in half.

Use paragraphs.

Delete editorial comments.

Ask three questions.

[IndianaOwner]

Tell the upstairs lady to cooperate or you'll have no choice but to sue. It makes me wonder if the lady doesn't have insurance and hence is being so weird about it???

[moburkes]

It's way too long, and there aren't enough white spaces to keep me interested. If you would do as BB suggested, I will answer your questions, if there are any.

[HOABMbrinWA]

Originally Posted by jlmagalong

What should I do? Should I tell the HOA via letter of my experience? Can I just repair it myself and send the bill to someone?

I would definitely write a letter to your HOA and attend their next meeting to complain about it. I would also mail this letter to that condo above you. This will also create a paper trail for you, which will be important if you end up filing a suit.

I wish you all the best.

HB in WA