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Flooded my unit and 3 lower units

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E

emandg

Junior Member
California,

I had a fill valve in my toilet randomly split (no prior leakage) and the water followed the plumbing lines and any gap it could find to cause flood damage to 3 unit bathrooms below. The owner on the first floor saw water coming out and called the HOA who promptly shut it off.

The HOA then called a mold remediation company who is going to charge in the range of $15k-20k to fix the problem as well as up to $10k to fix all the dry wall they have to repair. The HOA says it will bill us at the end. We do not have condo insurance and the HOA says their insurance does not cover it.

I understand we are responsible but I am wondering if they can charge us for the other 3 units. Once the water enters into the interior space between floors doesn't it become the HOA's responsibility?

We tried to recover the split fill valve from the plumber to possibly have a lawsuit against the fill valve maker since it randomly split but they have thrown it out.

Do I have any recourse? and can I possibly pay for my unit and for the HOA to pay for the surrounding damage (they have a large reserve). This problem is financially devastating to us to sell our unit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 


H

HomeGuru

Senior Member
emandg said:
California,

I had a fill valve in my toilet randomly split (no prior leakage) and the water followed the plumbing lines and any gap it could find to cause flood damage to 3 unit bathrooms below. The owner on the first floor saw water coming out and called the HOA who promptly shut it off.

The HOA then called a mold remediation company who is going to charge in the range of $15k-20k to fix the problem as well as up to $10k to fix all the dry wall they have to repair. The HOA says it will bill us at the end. We do not have condo insurance and the HOA says their insurance does not cover it.

I understand we are responsible but I am wondering if they can charge us for the other 3 units. Once the water enters into the interior space between floors doesn't it become the HOA's responsibility?

We tried to recover the split fill valve from the plumber to possibly have a lawsuit against the fill valve maker since it randomly split but they have thrown it out.

Do I have any recourse? and can I possibly pay for my unit and for the HOA to pay for the surrounding damage (they have a large reserve). This problem is financially devastating to us to sell our unit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
**A: yes, the HOA and the other owners of the affected condo units can charge you, as your unit was the cause. Where is your insurance agent?
 
E

emandg

Junior Member
Agent

HomeGuru said:
**A: yes, the HOA and the other owners of the affected condo units can charge you, as your unit was the cause. Where is your insurance agent?
Click to expand...
We do not have condo insurance so we do not have an agent, only HOA insurance which doesn't cover our problem. We have order a copy of the HOA policy but doubt there is any language in it that will cover our situation.
 
H

HomeGuru

Senior Member
emandg said:
We do not have condo insurance so we do not have an agent,

**A: yes, we are well aware of that.
My comment was to make you realize that it was not the best thing to not have insurance.
*********

only HOA insurance which doesn't cover our problem. We have order a copy of the HOA policy but doubt there is any language in it that will cover our situation.
Click to expand...

**A: then you know that you have 100% liability.
 
E

emandg

Junior Member
HomeGuru said:
**A: then you know that you have 100% liability.
Click to expand...
Even though we couldn't have prevented I understand we are responsible. My only real question is when the water entered the common space, did it become the HOA's responsibility or am I responsible for all the units.

It seems to me that once it enters the space between the condos it becomes the HOA's responsibility.
 
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