Water damage, they won't fix, can I sue?

[Wednesday13]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Connecticut

Not even sure where to start here...

I moved into my unit in 2003. There was nothing in my resale documents at the time about roof damage. However the roof is original to the building (built in the late 1800's) and has major issues. I live in the penthouse and the roof has been leaking water into my unit since I moved in. Over the last six years the damage has gotten quite bad, but not as bad as others in the building. I have a small mold spot on one wall. That entire wall has water stains. Another wall has a 2ft x 1ft flap of paint that peeled off from a river of water pouring in during a rainstorm. On that same wall, the seams where the drywall is pieced together have opened and cracked. There are large brown water stains on the ceiling due to water infiltration.

Four years ago, the former management association's "repair" was to send people in and scrape off a large portion of popcorn ceiling that had been hanging by flaps from water damage. I now have bare ceiling along with popcorn ceiling, which looks ridiculous and by no means "fixed" the problem. Since then, no repairs have been done. They have sent people up on the roof to do minor patch jobs that have only failed and resulted in further leaking.

A year and a half ago, they put a "temporary" tarp on the roof over one of my two major leaks, telling me it was only going to be there until the permanent fix could be put into place. Three weeks later I contacted them to find out when the permanent fix would be done, only to be told that the tarp WAS the permanent fix because the only other option was to replace the roof entirely. Six months after that, they tarped off my second major leak. They consider these two tarps the "permanent fixes" until the roof is replaced. However they still refuse to repair any of my interior water damage since it is "not in the budget". This is after they put into a published meeting minutes document that they had money set aside for me (a whopping $200) for repairs to my unit. When I inquired about the money months later having not been contacted about it, they said it no longer applied because we were in a new fiscal year and the money was gone. They had no explination as to where it went even after I questioned them. They simply kept stating "that was 2008's budget, we are in 2009 now". If it was there for 2008 and was not used for me, then it should still be there for 2009, not spent on something else...

I am now putting my condo on the market and obviously cannot sell my unit with the amount of water damage that it has. I will be paying to fix the water damage with my own money. My question is, once my place is sold, do I have the right to sue the Management Company/Condo Board for the amount that it costs me out of pocket to fix the water damage, as it should have been paid by the association in the first place? I have gotten estimates and it would be around $1400 for a basic repair but at this point it might be more, and honestly that was just for a "basic" repair. I won't be doing a basic repair since I should have gotten more than a "basic" repair in the first place.

I did at one point try to go through our building's insurance policy (my homeowner's won't cover it because it is from the roof and that is outside my coverage). Insurance wouldn't pay because the mgmt company told them they were in the process of investigating my damage and repairing it. Basically they lied, then yelled at me for contacting the insurance directly b/c I "didn't follow the rules". The person I spoke to at the mgmt company flat out lied to our main contact about how our conversation went and made me out to be a crazy psycho.

There are so many other issues with these people, I could go on for pages (did I mention we just found out that the management company hasn't been licensed for the last two years?). But right now this is what I'm going to focus on...

I am completely at my wits end with these people... i even had a board member tell me in an email last night that he "won't bother" to read any correspondence from me since he didn't "like my tone". Sorry, you volunteered to be on the board, you don't get to decide what you read and don't read from the unit owners... And I don't really care what my tone is at this point... I've had enough.

Anyway like I said, there is a LOT more to this, I could go on and on and on... but I'll end this here.

Thoughts?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by Wednesday13

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Connecticut

Not even sure where to start here...

I moved into my unit in 2003. There was nothing in my resale documents at the time about roof damage. However the roof is original to the building (built in the late 1800's) and has major issues. I live in the penthouse and the roof has been leaking water into my unit since I moved in. Over the last six years the damage has gotten quite bad, but not as bad as others in the building. I have a small mold spot on one wall. That entire wall has water stains. Another wall has a 2ft x 1ft flap of paint that peeled off from a river of water pouring in during a rainstorm. On that same wall, the seams where the drywall is pieced together have opened and cracked. There are large brown water stains on the ceiling due to water infiltration.

Four years ago, the former management association's "repair" was to send people in and scrape off a large portion of popcorn ceiling that had been hanging by flaps from water damage. I now have bare ceiling along with popcorn ceiling, which looks ridiculous and by no means "fixed" the problem. Since then, no repairs have been done. They have sent people up on the roof to do minor patch jobs that have only failed and resulted in further leaking.

A year and a half ago, they put a "temporary" tarp on the roof over one of my two major leaks, telling me it was only going to be there until the permanent fix could be put into place. Three weeks later I contacted them to find out when the permanent fix would be done, only to be told that the tarp WAS the permanent fix because the only other option was to replace the roof entirely. Six months after that, they tarped off my second major leak. They consider these two tarps the "permanent fixes" until the roof is replaced. However they still refuse to repair any of my interior water damage since it is "not in the budget". This is after they put into a published meeting minutes document that they had money set aside for me (a whopping $200) for repairs to my unit. When I inquired about the money months later having not been contacted about it, they said it no longer applied because we were in a new fiscal year and the money was gone. They had no explination as to where it went even after I questioned them. They simply kept stating "that was 2008's budget, we are in 2009 now". If it was there for 2008 and was not used for me, then it should still be there for 2009, not spent on something else...

I am now putting my condo on the market and obviously cannot sell my unit with the amount of water damage that it has. I will be paying to fix the water damage with my own money. My question is, once my place is sold, do I have the right to sue the Management Company/Condo Board for the amount that it costs me out of pocket to fix the water damage, as it should have been paid by the association in the first place? I have gotten estimates and it would be around $1400 for a basic repair but at this point it might be more, and honestly that was just for a "basic" repair. I won't be doing a basic repair since I should have gotten more than a "basic" repair in the first place.

I did at one point try to go through our building's insurance policy (my homeowner's won't cover it because it is from the roof and that is outside my coverage). Insurance wouldn't pay because the mgmt company told them they were in the process of investigating my damage and repairing it. Basically they lied, then yelled at me for contacting the insurance directly b/c I "didn't follow the rules". The person I spoke to at the mgmt company flat out lied to our main contact about how our conversation went and made me out to be a crazy psycho.

There are so many other issues with these people, I could go on for pages (did I mention we just found out that the management company hasn't been licensed for the last two years?). But right now this is what I'm going to focus on...

I am completely at my wits end with these people... i even had a board member tell me in an email last night that he "won't bother" to read any correspondence from me since he didn't "like my tone". Sorry, you volunteered to be on the board, you don't get to decide what you read and don't read from the unit owners... And I don't really care what my tone is at this point... I've had enough.

Anyway like I said, there is a LOT more to this, I could go on and on and on... but I'll end this here.

Thoughts?

**A: time to hire an attorney to help you.

[Wednesday13]

I'm leaning in that direction, I'm just sort of looking to see if I have grounds to sue before I spend the money on one first. I'm currently planning/paying for a wedding and trying to pay off credit cards, so money isn't exactly growing on trees these days If I definitely have a case then I will hire one for sure. Just wasn't sure I had any legs to stand on here...

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by Wednesday13

I'm leaning in that direction, I'm just sort of looking to see if I have grounds to sue before I spend the money on one first. I'm currently planning/paying for a wedding and trying to pay off credit cards, so money isn't exactly growing on trees these days If I definitely have a case then I will hire one for sure. Just wasn't sure I had any legs to stand on here...

**A: it is hard to tell at this point; that is why the attorney needs to review the relevant facts.

[Wednesday13]

Ahh that's what I was afraid of Ok, I think I get a free consult with an attorney through work... Was worth a shot asking here first though. Thanks for the quick reply!

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by Wednesday13

Ahh that's what I was afraid of Ok, I think I get a free consult with an attorney through work... Was worth a shot asking here first though. Thanks for the quick reply!

**A: ok, good luck.