EnsonP
Posts: 1
Posts: 1
Posted:
Hello,
I am faced with a dilemma and need some advise. We dont use our A/C much and back in August when temp was a 107 we turned the AC ON and my wife wife said it was only blowing hot air. Upon having a technician look at it he said there is a leak in the wall some where between the first and second floor where refrigerant has been leaking (Cost of visit $230.35). I contacted the HOA and we brought a second tech recommended by the HOA who confirmed that in fact there was a leak (Cost of visit $147.20). Two years ago the HOA had worked with a contractor to fix construction defects around the community for which there was a settlement to a legal law suit the HOA had filled against the original home builder. The HOA brought the contractor back to remove the paneling they had worked on 2 years ago since that was the general area of the leak. There was hole found in the copper pipe that runs from the A/C to the attic caused by a nail. It was concluded by a construction committee in our HOA that in fact the nail was not a part of the remodeling but from the original construction of the house 15 years ago. Cost of removing and reinstalling the paneling to locate the leak $1200-$2000. The second tech who confirmed the leak came back and patched the copper pipe(Cost of repair $1606). After all this the A/C was still not cooling. The tech came out again and later came out once for with an expert to replace some coil in the attic (cost $872). Still no luck. I ended up having a conference call between the owner of the A/C company and our HOA president where the boss said I have been doing this for 30 years, the overtime leakage and exposure has caused unwanted moisture and debris to mix with the refrigerant and oil that runs through the damaged pipe to get into the system and damaged the components. You will need to replace the entire system. The cost of diagnostics to get to where we are today cost $4,056 which the HOA is willing to fully cover. But they say the damage to my A/C will be covered only for the depreciation value of this unit. But having to replace a unit fully is not what I was looking forward to. The new A/C unit estimate is $6500 of which the HOA is willing to pay $2346 and I as a home owner has to cover $4172 because the unit was already 15 years old. The experts at the A/C company feel the life of these units are 25 years based on our light usage of turning the unit ON may be 5-6 times each summer.
Question I have: "Is the HOA being fair? This is a unique situation where getting to the root of the problem took months and HAO is willing to cover the cost of the external repairs to the pipe $4,056. I have proposed to the HOA that I was willing to pay 50% of the cost of replacing the A/C unit $6500 but the HOA is only willing to pay only the depreciate value $2346. At the HOA board meeting what passed was me the home owner has to cover $4172 for the A/C unit.
Thank you so much!
I am faced with a dilemma and need some advise. We dont use our A/C much and back in August when temp was a 107 we turned the AC ON and my wife wife said it was only blowing hot air. Upon having a technician look at it he said there is a leak in the wall some where between the first and second floor where refrigerant has been leaking (Cost of visit $230.35). I contacted the HOA and we brought a second tech recommended by the HOA who confirmed that in fact there was a leak (Cost of visit $147.20). Two years ago the HOA had worked with a contractor to fix construction defects around the community for which there was a settlement to a legal law suit the HOA had filled against the original home builder. The HOA brought the contractor back to remove the paneling they had worked on 2 years ago since that was the general area of the leak. There was hole found in the copper pipe that runs from the A/C to the attic caused by a nail. It was concluded by a construction committee in our HOA that in fact the nail was not a part of the remodeling but from the original construction of the house 15 years ago. Cost of removing and reinstalling the paneling to locate the leak $1200-$2000. The second tech who confirmed the leak came back and patched the copper pipe(Cost of repair $1606). After all this the A/C was still not cooling. The tech came out again and later came out once for with an expert to replace some coil in the attic (cost $872). Still no luck. I ended up having a conference call between the owner of the A/C company and our HOA president where the boss said I have been doing this for 30 years, the overtime leakage and exposure has caused unwanted moisture and debris to mix with the refrigerant and oil that runs through the damaged pipe to get into the system and damaged the components. You will need to replace the entire system. The cost of diagnostics to get to where we are today cost $4,056 which the HOA is willing to fully cover. But they say the damage to my A/C will be covered only for the depreciation value of this unit. But having to replace a unit fully is not what I was looking forward to. The new A/C unit estimate is $6500 of which the HOA is willing to pay $2346 and I as a home owner has to cover $4172 because the unit was already 15 years old. The experts at the A/C company feel the life of these units are 25 years based on our light usage of turning the unit ON may be 5-6 times each summer.
Question I have: "Is the HOA being fair? This is a unique situation where getting to the root of the problem took months and HAO is willing to cover the cost of the external repairs to the pipe $4,056. I have proposed to the HOA that I was willing to pay 50% of the cost of replacing the A/C unit $6500 but the HOA is only willing to pay only the depreciate value $2346. At the HOA board meeting what passed was me the home owner has to cover $4172 for the A/C unit.
Thank you so much!