Faulty roofing work by contractor & engineer

First off, Hello this is my first post and ill apologize for the length in advance!

Ok, Ill try to make this simple without being vague if that is possible! I purchased my condo in june of 07, at that time it was disclosed that in 1998 some major roof work had occured (4 buildings=16 units). All of the roof panels had to be replaced. The property manager at the time got several bids from contractors, the board met, a contractor was hired and an engineer was retained to oversee the project.

Now we roll forward to the summer of 2006, The condo no longer has a management company and is all volunteer. A squirrel had gotten where he should not have and caused some damage to a vent in one of the buildings. At this time a contractor was hired to fix the problem, he noticed some issues with the installation of the original roof and was concerned. An engineer was hired at that time to evaluate the situation and a contractor was hired to assist him to the tune of about 10 thousand bucks.

Upon completion of the engineers report he had determined that the original roof panels had been incorrectly installed and did not meet the manufacturers specifications. The original contractor was contacted and informed of our situation and indicated a willingness to work with the owners and fix the problem.

I was fully aware of this dialog and i am satisfied that i wasnt bamboozled or anything, unfortunately the contractor does not appear to be as cooperative as i had believed! In a recent e-mail he pointed out that the engineer which was originally hired by our property manager, had signed off on all the work and he doesnt feel as though it is his problem. When the original engineer was contacted he claims the second engineer we hired is incorrect in his report.

So now it is february 08 and we have a meeting coming up to determine what the heck we are going to do, a lawyer had been retained some time ago and he is ready to do our bidding should we choose to go to court against the contractor, engineer, etc. the problem is that no one seems to know who to go after! I mentioned possibly going after the orignal engineer at a previous meeting and the lawyer seemed offended and started babbling about how much it was going to cost to draft this and submit that. So it seems to me that we can try to sue the builder or sue the engineer, or just pay to have it all fixed out of pocket which is going to be discussed at the next meeting. Also could there be some kind of insurance claim that could be filed on such a repair?

Not one of these options sounds good to me but would like to go to this next meeting with a little insite if this has ever been a problem for someone else!

Thankyou!
-Kelly

Kelly you will probably end up having to hire a third engineer as an expert to sort the mess out. Since the contractor to fix the squirrel damage and the second engineer both think it was done incorrectly and the first engineer signed off on the original repairs he is probably the one to go after. To find out if the HOA's insurance will cover the repairs the BOD should speak with the Associations insurance agent but I personally doubt it and do you still have the same carrier as when the work was done. A couple of things you might look into:

Does the Association still have a copy of the first engineer's report and specifications?
Was a construction bond in place when the replacement was made?
Was a building permit obtained for the original repairs?
Were the original repairs inspected and approved by the building inspector?

Also keep in mind that the relevant building code may have changed and a repair/replacement done in 1998 may have very well been done to code at the time and does not have to be changed until the whole roof is re-done.

Kelly:

I see that you have two options:

#1, pay to have the roof corrected out of your associations funds and leave everything else alone.

#2, Take the original builder and engineer to court on the basis that the panels were installed against manufacturers recommendations (builder), and that the engineer should have known this and yet signed off on it. Another engineer will probably have to be hired to provide a third opinion and I can see this is getting pretty expensive if you are not successful. If you are successful your lawyer should ask for all court costs, etc. in the judgement.

If what the second engineer is saying is true I think you have a legit case, unless your state has a statute of limitations on claims such as these. There was no way for the Board at the time to know that the installation was not correct, that is what they hired an engineer and the contractor for, to do the job correctly.

I don't know that the homeowner's insurance is going to cover a bad installation...unless you had insurance on the installation. It might cover the squirrel.