How do you handle this

If you live in an apartment style condominium building, I would like to know how others may handle the situation I will describe. Or even if you don't live in an apartment style condominium building I would appreciate your viewpoint.

Water was leaking into the hallway. The leak was by a unit as though coming from that unit. A Board member by invitation of the owner went into the apartment to try to correct the situation. (This Board member used to be our on site manager and had done similar things for other units many times to correct a similar situation. The Board Member told the owner if that did not work the owner should call her own air conditioning people to come take a look at her air conditioner.

The leak dried up and started more than once.

Our PM men spend much time trying to find the source of the leak. Our PM charges $35.00 an hr for such services.

The owner was sitting in the hall one day when the PM maintenance man came to try to find the source of the leak. She said she was sitting in the hall to stay cool as she was not using her air conditioner all the time as she was concerned it might be the source of the leak.

The maintenance man asked her to go into her unit and turn on her air. He find the problem immediately.

Other times maintenance men or a Board member had checked her apt but everything was dry. It was probably dry because she had the air conditioner off.

I have been reviewing our documents and I found where if a unit owner is negligent, the owner is responsible for the time spend finding the problem. From the info you have from me, do you think the owner was negligent? We will be discussing this at our next Board meeting.

I still need to study our documents some more. Once I paid for the maintenance men's time once when the problem was in my unit. (Not exactly the same problem) The PM billed the Association, but I told him to delete from the Association's bill and bill me and I will pay which I did. But this owner's bill is going to be much higher than the $131.00 I paid.

Bonnie, just how do you think the owner was negligent? Seems to me the previous maintenance people who didn't ask her to turn the AC on were just as negligent as the owner who turned it off.

Soooooo

the actual maintenance person found the source of the leak IMMEDIATELY

? exactly how did the 'well meaning' volunteers(s) assist in any way ?

! except to waste time and allow MORE potential damage !

Let the children play: Here we go 'round the Mulberry bush, the Mulberry bush, the Mulberry bush ............

To repeat my previous advice (for the very last time):

Directors direct

Maintenance maintains

Police police

Volunteers waste time and money

LET THE PROs DO THEIR JOB

Now if someone could explain to me how this homeowner was not negligent, I would appreciate it. She had to know her air conditioning unit was giving problems. Why else would she be turning it off and sitting in the hall to stay cool? She is one of my favorite owners. I would love for this to go in her favor, but we have to be fair to everyone.

Bonnie,

I said that based on what you provided, the individual was not negligent.

OK, the A/C caused the leak. Why?

Were the pipes condensing?
Was the drain clogged?
Has the A/C been regularly serviced?
Is there a crack in the drip pan?
Is the pipe the A/C drain empties into clogged?

Additionally, did it cause damage to the common area?
Who is responsible for preventative maintenance to the A/C units?
Was preventative maintenance done? If it was, when was it last done?

You have given very little details except that individuals went in to find the source of the leak. That many could not identify the source and finally one did. Based on that information, no the individual was not negligent. If you provide more details, perhaps that opinion would change.

Bonnie G1 (Neb)

You haven't indicated yet if the governance documents made the source a unit owner's upgrade for that owner herself to maintain/hire & pay repairers, or a building system exclusively for condo corp maintenance.

Presuming the defect was within an improperly installed or maintained unit owner's responsibility, how is it a game changer if she was "negligent" other than for insurable loss deductibles under the corporation's master insurance policy ?

From your account she retained corporation staff to do what MAY -or may not - have been a unit owner maintenance/repair duty.

Repairers like physicians etc - unless expressly - do not guarantee immediate 100 % fix. There is a short list of "absolute liability duties". eg aftermath of bringing wild elephants into a crowded shopping centre and then setting off firecrackers.

She chose to trigger condo corp personnel who initially - possibly like her - did not ( ? reasonably ? ) link visible or rug drenching water to an air conditioner.

Maybe a different story had she said initially to the FIRST responders : "It only happens after I use my ( ? private window mounted airconditioner ?). Wouldn't they have found the source like later ?

How could she be 'negligent' until she reasonably links the (whatever) but fails to next mention the link ?

How could the initial responders be negligent or unless their diagnosis fell below tha standard of #35/ hr onsite staff ?

We had a condo where this happened all the time. The AC Condensate drain never got cleaned out. The unit above was a rental property and they never put any money into the condo for maintenance. Don't most folks have their AC air handler and outside AC unit serviced every year. The condensate drain kept getting clogged and then the pan would overflow. It would also help if they cleaned the AC coils in the Air Handler. The Propery manager and the COA docs pretty much said that if the water came from your unit (non-common area pipes), then it was your problem. In order words, the upstairs unit owner was responsible.

I can answer some of these questions. As this is an air conditioner for a private unit we have no way of knowing if it was regularly serviced. Yes it did cause damage to the common area. The owner is responsible for the preventative maintenance of his or her unit.

The unit owner is responsible for the air AC for his or her unit. Shortly after I bought my condo, I had to buy a new air conditioner. The association is responsible for the AC units for the common areas.

If so then why are you and/or the PM involved in this situation?

Thanks for the extra info, Bonnie.

In our high rise, we started a mandatory inspection a few years ago to try to ward off things like clogged condensate lines and our incidents of floods from heat pump problems dropped to zero.

At that time many owners changed out the original rubber hoses for braided stainless ones. We're probably about 90% stainless hoses by now.

Owners are charged per heat pump about $65 each.

With leaks of an unknown source our own building engineer would try to find the source and usually succeed. If an outside vendor was needed, and IF the leak was caused by the Owner's personal property, e.g., heat pump, toilet appliances, the owner would be billed for the service and would pay for damage to other units or the common areas with their insurance (one hopes!).

Bonnie G1 (Neb)

When you were talking above about recovering billings, I asked : "presuming the defect was within an improperly installed or maintained unit owner's responsibility, how is it a game changer if she was "negligent" other than for insurable loss deductibles under the corporation's master insurance policy ?"

Sort of changes things now that you refocus on common element damage.

Why not just claim through the corporation's master insurance policy and let the owner suck up the deductible if your state law & Declaration allows ( plus any modification agreement if the rooftop unit was a retrofit) ? Mere mechanical failure doesn't automatically trigger successful negligence claims.