HOA board insurance / errors & omissions

new member here, I will try to keep this as brief as possible, just looking for some direction or help to the extent it's possible, thanks!

I'm a member of an HOA community in PA with about 200 units. Back in 2008-2012 we underwent a siding project to remove old wooden siding and replace it with a cement type "hardie" board siding. The members of the HOA board at the time oversaw this project as well as the contractors who performed the work. Fast-forward to 2017 and we are now finding that this work was not done correctly due to all sorts of reasons. The underlying house-wrap was not replaced or even used in some areas leaving gaps around doors and windows, flashing was not used in areas, trim was not installed properly, etc. Ultimately we are now finding the structures underneath the new siding are rotting away, and the siding was supposed to last for 20 years!

Ok, so the current HOA board is doing things right: hiring professional firms to assess the damage and moisture, etc and the conclusion everyone came to is that the siding needs to be removed, the structure/rotting wood needs to be corrected, rotting windows and doors replaced, house re-wrapped correctly, and then new siding has to be put back on.

This project will cost approx. $5M dollars or approx. $50k per home.

My question is in regards to the insurance policy the HOA board carries and whether this would cover the damages done by the previous board who obviously didn't know what the heck they were doing on this project back in 2008-2012. Seems like they were negligent in not hiring professionals, or engineers to oversee the work, and now every homeowner is on the hook for $50k. This is in addition to the cost of the work back in 2008, so we're essentially paying 2 times in 5 years for work that should have lasted 20 years!

Any help is appreciated, I'm not sure where to start or how to approach the issue, but I have to think there's some protection in the insurance policy for homeowners like myself who were unaware of how all of this went down.

thanks!

Doubtful

thanks for all the replies! Unfortunately, someone has already reviewed the old contracts and they do not specify to use flashing or to re-wrap the house first, etc. They were just general contracts and the supervisor should have said something when over-seeing the work. In addition, all of the companies who did the work were small contractors who are now out of business.

I had a friend who said that a similar situation happened at a boat dock he was keeping his boat at. The dock was aging, so they re-built the docks, then a storm came and destroyed it. They had someone look at the work and found it to be poor, so they used the insurance policy that covered the hoa board to say they hired bad contractors, and the re-build of the dock was covered. That's a simplistic example, I know, but it's what started me to wonder why the insurance policy that covers my HOA wouldn't also cover the houses in my scenario.

To make things more interesting, when I asked the HOA for copies of the insurance policies from those 2008-2012 years, I was told I can come review them, but under no circumstance can I take a copy home with me. When I spoke to the attorney (and others) about that, they all went out of their way to talk me out of even looking at them. (and if I do insist, they're going to make it as difficult as possible for me). That makes me think there's something in there they don't want me to see....

thanks again!