JohnK12 (California)
Posts: 3
Posts: 3
Posted:
Hello all, just joined this site. I've been the HOA president of our small condo building for several years but I've never had to deal with as big a crisis as we're experiencing now. The recent heavy rains flooded 3 of our units (tree roots had broken a crucial drain pipe), and the damage was so bad that I decided to file a claim on the building insurance rather than pay from our reserve.
The insurance company has been responsive, and within a week of my call we got a company out here to remove wet carpets, cut out soaked drywall and dry everything up. Another company came and did mold removal (as there was a fair amount by the time we got to work) and there's been waves of inspections by insurance adjusters and contractors. It's been pretty chaotic and I'm barely holding onto my sanity being the point man for all this (no building super = it's all on me). In the end I think we'll get a healthy settlement and start rebuilding soon. But that's not the main issue...
In one of the units (ironically, the one with the least amount of damage) the owner's 2-year old has gotten very sick with bronchitis. Both the child and his mother had been feeling ill from around the time the clean-up started, and the owner (who is on the board, fyi) is blaming the drywall and mold removal for putting a lot of bad stuff in the air. Plus, the workers apparently left his basement door ajar (to run an extension cord into the garage) so he's also convinced the cold, drafty air exacerbated things. Now, he can be a bit excitable at times (especially about his kids) but I feel bad for him on this one. It certainly wasn't his fault he flooded, and his kid could certainly have gotten ill from all this. The big question: what recourse does he have to get some satisfaction from the situation? The nature of our building insurance only covers the structural repairs, not personal effects or illness or anything. He may be able to file a claim under Liability, but he'll have to prove negligence on someone's part and I don't know if anything the various workers did was really negligent; it was a noisy, messy, cold and dusty situation that was ultimately the weather's fault. I should add that he does not have homeowner's insurance, which may have helped him out here. Still, it's very hard to point that out and say "tough cookies" to someone in this situation especially while they're still so irate. The last thing I want is for this to end up in front of the board and him demanding that the HOA pay for some of his expenses and medical bills in this situation, as that could get pretty ugly...
Whew, sorry about the long post! Anyway, bottom line: has anyone been in a similar situation with building insurance? Any ideas on how to deal with this situation moving forward?
The insurance company has been responsive, and within a week of my call we got a company out here to remove wet carpets, cut out soaked drywall and dry everything up. Another company came and did mold removal (as there was a fair amount by the time we got to work) and there's been waves of inspections by insurance adjusters and contractors. It's been pretty chaotic and I'm barely holding onto my sanity being the point man for all this (no building super = it's all on me). In the end I think we'll get a healthy settlement and start rebuilding soon. But that's not the main issue...
In one of the units (ironically, the one with the least amount of damage) the owner's 2-year old has gotten very sick with bronchitis. Both the child and his mother had been feeling ill from around the time the clean-up started, and the owner (who is on the board, fyi) is blaming the drywall and mold removal for putting a lot of bad stuff in the air. Plus, the workers apparently left his basement door ajar (to run an extension cord into the garage) so he's also convinced the cold, drafty air exacerbated things. Now, he can be a bit excitable at times (especially about his kids) but I feel bad for him on this one. It certainly wasn't his fault he flooded, and his kid could certainly have gotten ill from all this. The big question: what recourse does he have to get some satisfaction from the situation? The nature of our building insurance only covers the structural repairs, not personal effects or illness or anything. He may be able to file a claim under Liability, but he'll have to prove negligence on someone's part and I don't know if anything the various workers did was really negligent; it was a noisy, messy, cold and dusty situation that was ultimately the weather's fault. I should add that he does not have homeowner's insurance, which may have helped him out here. Still, it's very hard to point that out and say "tough cookies" to someone in this situation especially while they're still so irate. The last thing I want is for this to end up in front of the board and him demanding that the HOA pay for some of his expenses and medical bills in this situation, as that could get pretty ugly...
Whew, sorry about the long post! Anyway, bottom line: has anyone been in a similar situation with building insurance? Any ideas on how to deal with this situation moving forward?