Need help with filing claim to homeowners insurance

I am in Association Board and was assigned to deal with one of our unit owner's request about structural damages to his unit. He states that previous owner provided him with professional inspection from professional structural engineer about those damages and now he is planning to get updated inspection from that same service. Our association is holding home owners insurance policy which suppose to cover similar situations. I also understand that we need to file claim and insurance company will more likely will run their own inspection. I asked this owner by email about chance to look at actual damages before filing contacting insurance agent. However this owner for some reasons is reluctunt to give us access to his home and to show damages. Same time he also is trying to give us his inspection results as basuis for claim. Please advice if we can move forward with filing claim without seeing actual damages.

Alan,
I think Glen is right about not filing claim until you can see damage.
I would suggest the BOD file a message to your insurance company describing the situation and ask for advice. I would also copy this owner in the letter.

I would want some time frame set about the associations involvement. Might save a few problems if this owners continues to be a problem. I would describe his actions about this up to this point as "playing games."

Partly right imo. Unless you are an engineer your seeing it makes little difference whereas a report from an engineer does.

Alan - are you saying that a NEW owner bought a unit and that unit had structural damages to it, and now that new owner is trying to get the HOA to pay for it now?

How old is this damage?

I don't think it's out of line for a representative of the BOD to enter the questioned unit/home to determine if there is, in fact, any visual problems. If so, then pictures can be taken. If not, then a report can be written up that someone viewed the "damage" on such and such a date, did not see anything "to the naked/untrained" eye. Use the visit to document BOD action.

Regardless of whether the BOD views the damage...an insurance adjuster will certainly be trained in viewing/determining damage that would be against the insurance policy. Perhaps the insurance adjuster would be able to determine an approximate age of the damage.

As a first step, though, having a BOD person check it out is a good idea.

I'm curious why the original owner (or whomever sold the home to the current occupant) didn't submit a claim against the association insurance...why pass it off to the new owner, if that is, in fact, what is occuring.

Is there a policy for this association on how an owner goes about submitting a claim against the association's policy? If not...now is a good time to write/approve one.

This is an interesting topic.

Personally, as board president, I would not recommend that I or any other board member enter the unit to view the damage without a trained person along. This trained person could be a contractor that the association uses for repairs, it could be a property manager, it could be an engineer. We also have had a reseve study prepared by trained engineers and professionals. If you have had this done, contacting them might be an option.

I'm a trained architect and feel I'd have a pretty good handle or opinion on the situation if I was allowed to view it. However, I would not put myself personally in the situation. There is too much of a possibility of being part of a future lawsuit.

As a board member, this is beyond my responsibilities. Why open up personal liability?

In my opinion, the board should notify the owner that prior to filing a claim with the association insurance, the board would need to see the owners structural damage report and then they would need their professional to inspect the property. If they have a legit complaint the owner would not have objection to this.