Patio drains backed up and flooded apartment. Who's liable for repairs?

Hi,
I have the only open patio in my complex with 4 roofs above that drained holy hell into my patio during a storm in Austin TX (some areas saw 4+ inches of rain that day) in April 2013 and filled my patio up with 4 inches of water before it found it's way under 2 sliding glass doors and through the wall of the closet in between. The 2 two inch drain pipes couldn't handle the volume of water that was in there. (It acted like a bathtub) The management company that reepresents the HOA says it's my problem and my liability for it's flooding and subsequent repairs. If it's inside the floor of the patio that is not sufficient how is that in my scope of liability?

Thanks.

Mike,

If there is no indication of negligence (i.e. the association failed to respond if you complained that the drain appeared blocked or slow)and the size of the pipe is in compliance with local building codes, the issue would be considered an act of nature. Typically, in an act of nature you would be responsible for the damage to your property and the Association would be responsible for the damage to their property. Usually, you would report it to your insurance company and the insurance company would fight with the Association for any reimbursement due.

However, since this was an issue of flooding it's likely that your own insurance policy won't cover it (but read your policy for sure). If you have flood insurance, they should cover it.

If you don't have insurance that will cover the damage and you believe that there was some form of negligence on part of the Association, you should check with a local attorney to see what legal options are available.

Yep, John, you and I were posting at the same time.

I know that the OP is saying the drain is a 2" pipe. However, it could be a short reducer taking a 3" to 2" so there wasn't as large of a footprint on the patio. I don't know building codes, so I don't know if this would or wouldn't meet code.

Mike just what was the damage caused and the cost of repairs?

I would have to make a judgement whether this issue warranted you contacting a lawyer or pursuing it further. Did you file a claim with your homeowners insurance? What was their response?

Do you have insurance?

How long has this pipe provided adequate drainage and after such a rainfall my guess it would into the act of God class.

It's possible the 2" drain was up to code when the house was built and is therefore "legal" even though it doesn't meet todays standards.

Wow, Thank you for all of the answers. |_____| This opening to the left is what my patio looks like, with the opening facing north, and the lines are also the gutters above.. These gutters I believe overflowed into the patio causing it to fill up. Above these 3 roofs is the main flat roof that drains onto it as well through 4 openings that are at least a
1 foot X 1 foot 4 of them!! (there was a 4 1/2 inch water line around the patio after the water drained)

There's no way it rained 4+ inches and all in my patio in one afternoon and the gutters above handled all of that rain and didn't overflow. The 2 inch drains I'm guessing are up to code but they couldn't handle the overflow from roofs above which I believe was the main water source.. Thanks for all your help. I do have an attorney, we are waiting on the HOA's insurance company to determine if they are liable.

Lastly, the property manager says I'm responsible for the repair and maintanence of my patio. The Managment company tried to tell me to read my condo docs which states: " An owner shall maintain and keep in repair the interior and patio and / or balcony space of his own Unit, including the fixtures thereof."

This "balcony space" doesn't cover drainage problems to me, as the drainage is in the flooring, how can I be responsible for what's in the floor? This will happen again and again and needs to be fixed..
Thanks again for all the help!
Mike

So Mike what exactly was the damage you claimed took place to your unit? Has it been fixed and if so what was the $$$ amount for those repairs?

We had a very similar situation and the unit owners insurance covered ZERO. According to our lawyer were were not obligated to cover any of the repair costs. This was a once in a life time storm when the drains were adequate for YEARS and IF it rained that amount over a short period of time NO size drain pipe would have be sufficient.

Again I would wonder what the cost of repairs were and what needed to be done exactly.

Mike

Did you investigate/consider filing a claim against your own insurance company?

Mike sounds like the outcome with your insurance was just about the same as the owner here who suffered similar damage from historical heavy rains.

Now $8,000 is nothing to sneeze at and I hope for you sake the property's insurance carrier agrees to cover at least a portion of this.

First thing they will do is review the charges and costs.

I just have to wonder if you have spoken directly with the Board on this matter? Will they work with you at all? Because as I see it at worst some portion of this damage should be THEIR responsibility. Perhaps if they wil willing to share this cost rather than face litigation.

In the end here we paid for a portion of the repairs which in fact we were not required to do as an act of good faith in working with a property owner. It was not their fault nor a deliberate action on the part of the HOA. For our troubles the owner then sued us seeking ridiculous compensation for damage that was NOT a result of this water entering their unit.
We defended that suit at a cost to the other property owners and the homeowner as hoped LOST!

So much for trying to do the right thing. Give them a hand they want the arm.

If you wish to pursue this I would contact the Board directly and ask if they can come to some terms agreeable to both parties. But keep in mind fair is meeting somewhere in the middle for both sides. If not you could have a lawyer contact them as in some cases this might motivate an unmotivated party to pay attention.

Bottom line this is between you and the Board and IMO the MC does as they are told rather than making determinations as to facts on there own.

Good luck....

Typically a deck over living space is considered a roof. Roofs are almost always the HOA's responsibility to maintain and repair. If a roof doesn't have adequate drainage to handle the heaviest downpour and it backs up into a unit, IMO the HOA should pay for repairs.

see us at www.deckexpert.com for info and advice on decks for HOA's.

Had a similar problem but this was with the interior drain pipes from a common stack of 3 bathrooms. There was a drain backup in the bottom floor garage pipes which flooded a unit and resulted in massive damage. The unit owner had no homeowners insurance. Our HOA policy had been written in such a way that it excluded drain backups. The HOA was stuck with the bill for the damages. Has anyone else had problem of insurance coverage not including drains for common stacks?