Florida: Flood Damage from Upper Unit - no insurance

Ok, here's my dilemma. A year ago, Oct 2008, I pulled my FL condo off of the rental market to do major renovations. I did not expect it to take a year, but it did. Because the unit was going to be unoccupied for months, I dropped my interior condo insurance with all intents of resuming it once the unit was rentable.

Three days before I was planning to put the unit back on the rental market, the unit above me had a water-heater malfunction and it flooded my unit for nine hours before discovered.

At first, the insurance adjuster for the upstairs unit notified both my management company and my contractor to just submit bills, but now he's changed his tune and is stating that because I wasn't following the 2008 law about interior insurance, nothing is covered.

As you probably imagine, I've incurred thousands of dollars in repairs and the unit went unrented for an additional three months.

My questions:

1. I was not aware of this new 2008 interior insurance law, nor did my BOD's bring it up on either of our last two annual meetings.

2. The owner of the above rental unit has offered nothing directly to me, so obviously I'm considering at least Small Claims Court for at the least the first $5K.

3. The insurance adjuster for the unit above has stated that he will only deal with my own insurance adjuster, yet he knows that I have no insurance (thanks to my management company).

Am I stuck with all repair expenses? I'm very interested an the feedback from this forum.

Thanks
Sea

I would say that your only option at this point is to contact an attorney. I don't know if the law would negate the claim. Your state agency dealing with insurance companies may or may not be of help.

Well, I've researched further on this new Condo Insurance Law, that actually went into affect on Jan 1, 2009 (not 2008), read the legislation, found dozens of articles complaining about the confusion it has created, and I am going to take the third responder's advice and find an attorney.

If you care to read it, the new law is covered here:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0718/SEC111.HTM&Title=-%3E2008-%3ECh0718-%3ESection%20111#0718.111

Section 11 covers the Insurance Changes

News articles:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2008/12/30/a6b_condoinsure_1231.html

On a sidebar in this article:

How the new law works

1. A leaking water heater in an uninsured second-floor condo unit floods the condo unit below it.

2. The unit owner below has insurance but still has a $2,000 deductible.

3. Unable to collect from the uninsured owner, the unit owner with flood damage could sue the condo association, arguing that it failed to protect residents interests by not 'force placing' insurance on the owner going bare.

Source: Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation; attorneys specializing in condo law.

Now this one is interesting to me because this exact thing happened, BUT the second-floor condo above me IS insured in my situation. I'm curious why I, with or without insurance, have to justify anything when damages were 100% attributed to the insured owner above me. The new law clearly does not define this as a "no fault" change.

Too tired to go into this more tonight, but I really appreciate all your feedback.

~SB

Soo...SeaB, where does that leave you?