Or, a backed-up sewer may cause a leak into your unit. Your plumber can tell you if the leak was caused by something in your unit, like a poorly installed tankless water heater, or if the cause is further down the line.
For example, a common room above your unit has a leak that is trickling down into your unit. If so, get in touch with your HOA right away. They can be slow to address problems, and while they are ultimately responsible for the damage they cause, more damage is only more inconvenience for you.
While HOAs can be slow to respond, they typically do take responsibility for any leaks caused in their portion of the building. Neighbors may be less upfront than the HOA about taking responsibility if the leak is coming from their unit. You may need your plumber to perform a water leak detection to confirm for the neighbor that their property is the problem.
Shutting off your water will help you figure out if the leak is coming from your unit or your neighbors. Once the water is shut off, assess the area. If the leak stops, this means you are the leak-er. If the leak continues, you are the leak-ee. Immediately contact the surrounding units — above, behind, and beside.
They are able to provide assistance in contacting your neighbors and even recommending a licensed plumber. We recommend that you contact a licensed plumber to help you identify the source of the problem. Once the source is determined, it is important to carefully review the documents that govern your Condominium Association.
To further explain, if the leaking water line ONLY services your unit, it is your responsibility to address the repair. In some Associations, the documents are not as specific and provide that The Association is responsible for any water pipe contained inside the walls of the condominium structure.
It is important to know the extent of the water damage for a number of reasons, including determining and prioritizing scope of repairs, mitigating further damage, and evaluating whether to file an insurance claim. But for the purposes of determining who is responsible for water damage , the answer is no.
The source of the water could be irrelevant to determining who is responsible for repairing the damage. DO NOT get stuck on this question as it is not relevant until question no. Once you have compiled the list of damaged components, the next you thing you want to do is figure out whether the association or the owner is responsible for maintaining and repairing each of the damaged components.
Maintenance and repair responsibilities are laid out in the declaration i. In condominium communities, most often the declaration provides that the association is responsible for maintaining and repairing the common elements, and the Owner is responsible for maintaining the unit. Sounds easy, right? Be careful not to make any assumptions of what is included in the common elements vs. If unit boundaries are the perimeter walls, floors and ceilings, does the wall start at the paint, drywall or studs?
Does the floor start at the carpet or subflooring? Where would a fireplace fall within the unit boundaries? What about a pipe that exclusively serves a unit, but part of the pipe is on the inside of the unit, and the rest of the pipe is on the outside of the unit?
Even if the declaration clearly identifies the boundaries of a unit, sometime maintenance and repair obligations are not tied to whether the component is part of the unit or the common elements. It is also common for an association to be responsible for maintaining certain pipes that serve the common elements or other units, even though they are located inside the unit boundaries.
Finally, what if the declaration is silent as to who is responsible for what? In those cases, you may want to review the condominium map for the association, as it may provide an answer. If neither the declaration nor the condo map assist, then you need to fall back on the general analysis of whether such component is inside or outside the unit boundaries in order to determine maintenance and repair obligations.
You should also contact your attorney! Does negligence or insurance serve to shift the cost of that responsibility to another party? Two things could shift the obligation to pay for such maintenance or repair to another party: i negligence, or ii insurance obligations. How do you analyze whether someone was negligent?
Look to the following four elements of a negligence claim:. The first step is to determine whether the defendant owed the plaintiff a legal duty of care. In the context of a condo water leak, the association and owners owe the following duties of care to one another: properly and timely maintain and repair the components they are obligated to maintain and repair.
Next, determine whether the defendant breached this duty by doing or not doing something that a reasonably prudent person would do under similar circumstances. In the context of a condo water leak, did the association fail to timely maintain the roof? Or, did the owner fail to adequately repair a water heater line?
Sure, someone might be acting negligently, but the plaintiff can only recover if this negligence causes the injury.
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