Coach Beard
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- California
I live in a condominium and my building has 3 units, mine being a single level unit but it is elevated above all 3 units garages. The neighbor at the far end of the building discovered a water leak in the drywall of his garage. Above that area is my master bedroom deck, and water heater in a closet.
Long story short:
No visible leak from my unit, The water heater was replaced but was not the source of any leaks and was inspected when replaced along with a water test. Tested the deck, the water heater enclosure and area, any possible culprit
My party hired our own plumber and our own water leak/damage expert to inspect a few weeks later as the situation went on. Several leak/water tests were performed and they were inconclusive as well as no further leaking or damage has occurred in my neighbor's garage.
The HOA hired 2 separate professionals to inspect and produced the same results - no definitive source for the leak, no further leak occurring.
Who is responsible for payment to repair the neighbor's garage drywall that was cut out for inspection, and whatever other demands he had (I have another household member handling the situation since I have been at work during all of these inspections. I'm not familiar with the full requested restitution).
Some folks might say the HOA is responsible since the leak was within the walls
Some folks might say my party is responsible, despite there not being any solid evidence that anything from my unit caused the leak
Some folks might say the owner of the unit with the damage is responsible.
My party had already spent hundreds of dollars in good faith to ensure a thorough and multi-viewed inspection was performed alongside the HOA's vendors. Thank you for your input, or if you could direct me to any case law or statutes I would be appreciative. I am currently reading the CC&R's in detail.
Long story short:
No visible leak from my unit, The water heater was replaced but was not the source of any leaks and was inspected when replaced along with a water test. Tested the deck, the water heater enclosure and area, any possible culprit
My party hired our own plumber and our own water leak/damage expert to inspect a few weeks later as the situation went on. Several leak/water tests were performed and they were inconclusive as well as no further leaking or damage has occurred in my neighbor's garage.
The HOA hired 2 separate professionals to inspect and produced the same results - no definitive source for the leak, no further leak occurring.
Who is responsible for payment to repair the neighbor's garage drywall that was cut out for inspection, and whatever other demands he had (I have another household member handling the situation since I have been at work during all of these inspections. I'm not familiar with the full requested restitution).
Some folks might say the HOA is responsible since the leak was within the walls
Some folks might say my party is responsible, despite there not being any solid evidence that anything from my unit caused the leak
Some folks might say the owner of the unit with the damage is responsible.
My party had already spent hundreds of dollars in good faith to ensure a thorough and multi-viewed inspection was performed alongside the HOA's vendors. Thank you for your input, or if you could direct me to any case law or statutes I would be appreciative. I am currently reading the CC&R's in detail.
