insurance deductable - new jersey

Gene what was the source of the leak?

How was the unit owner allowed to file a calim agaionst the association's insurance? Who provided them the coverage
information? Did the Board or MC ok this claim to be made or paid?

Is this a condo? Townhouse?

IMO the uni owner upstairs may have been solely responsible for the damages.

And how were they able to make claims against both and collect?

Sounds like there are several issues that need to be looked into.

We don't have enough details to intelligently answer your question. Was your Association at fault for any of the damages caused by flooding?

I will say that ordinarily, if a homeowner allows or causes something to happen inside his unit that damages common area or another homeowner's unit, it is the responsibility of the homeowner who caused the damage to pay the entire cost of repairs, and if the homeowner has a proper insurance policy, it will pay this. If the fault for the damage lies solely in the lap of the homeowner, the amount of the deductible is irrelevant to the Association, since it's not the Association's responsibility to pay for it.

Over the years, I have seen many cases like this one where a homeowner causes water damage, and then tries to claim that the Association is responsible for paying for the repairs. It's a bad idea to let homeowners get away with this. Water intrusion is the main cause of unit-to-unit and unit-to-common-area damage in multifamily buildings, and if your Association establishes a policy of taking responsibility for homeowner negligence, you will soon find yourselves to be uninsurable, and your bank accounts depleted. A single incident such as this one can cost over $30,000 in damages.

All of that said, I don't understand how you can direct your insurance company to pay for anything. Insurance companies make those decisions, regardless of what their policy holders might want - deductible or no deductible. Sadly, sometimes insurance companies will agree to pay a claim against the Association's policy, even when the Association is clearly not at fault. The reason is this: If the cost of fighting the claim is likely to be higher than the amount of the claim, the insurance company will cut its losses, and the homeowner will get away with it. There is nothing the Association can do about this, except take the homeowner to court to get reimbursed for the deductible.

Rob

Here are more details. I am on the Board. The Associations INS did send a check to the Association to pay for common property that was damaged by the leak. That property was the wall and cabinets. I'm not sure why they paid this claim either when it was determined that the leak came from the second floor Owner when they did some upgrades. The Associations INS in my opinion should have denied the claim. The entire claim should have been processed through the Owner who was responsable. It was not. Now the question is who should cover the deductible? The Association - the faulty party - or the homeowner. Remember the faulty parties INS has settled the claim for the remaing repairs but the Owner with the damage wants the Associations deductible covered, he does not want to pay this out of his own pocket. Does the Association have to cover this deducible or not? I think we need a Lawyer for this one.