Ok… i rent and live in Los Angeles and own a condo in Vegas… I have a property management co. dealing with the condo in vegas and the tenant. Apparently my water heater had a leak in july but wasn’t discovered until late august (don’t know how the tenant didn’t know)… the Management company found mold, they’ve been cleaning up the mess in my unit (garage, inside of wall). Apparently water got into the neighbors unit and caused damage and mold and damage to some $1500 furniture). She wants my property management co. to come fix her unit… they don’t want to… especially with the mold issues… they don’t want the tenant to come back later and say they did something wrong or something to that extent…
Apparently the only insurance i have for the condo is through the HOA (it satisfied my bank’s requirement) and the HOA says i’m only covered outside of the building. Yup… should of had insurance… thought the HOA ins. was fine (this was/is my first real estate purchase)
so… I want to fix this situation… it’s not the neighbor’s fault… my unit caused the problem… i need to fix it… the property management co. has the opinion to do nothing until her insurance company contacts us… since I’m on the hook for this i feel I should tell the neighbor to get a couple quotes and I’ll pay for it… it’s not her fault… she’s threatened the prop. management co. with a lawsuit… up to this point i’ve let the prop. deal with everything…
where is the line drawn regarding my prop. mangement’s help in this matter… they took care of my unit… the neighbor’s unit isn’t there responsibility… but it’s mine… they represent me… if they won’t use their guys fix the neighbor’s unit… should they look for someone else to do it… or do I have to go to vegas and find someone to do it…
after this is resolved… i’m getting condo insurance… to bad I’m a bit late… I assumed!!! I will check the CCR’s tonight to double verify that the HOA insurance doesn’t cover damage incurred by another unit…
Make your life easy, just pay your neighbor. Let her get you a couple of quotes from companies SHE wants to use. As long as the prices are reasonable just cut the check. I would have my attorney write up a quick release for her to sign BEFORE you hand her the money.
If she picks the company and there’s a problem, it’s all on her. If I was your property manager I wouldn’t go near her condo either, why too much liability there. Let her get her own guy’s. Doing the right thing always makes for good realtions with your neighbors.
cash settlement and move on. If the quote comes in at $1500, I’d pay her $2000 with a full release of liability. Just pay to make this problem go away.
I don’t see how insurance would help you this matter, but I’m not famiilar with condo insurance.
Very odd…Who said it started leaking in July and how did they know?..Who was the silent party who knows it was leaking in July?..The neighbor who wanted her placed damaged so she could collect some money so she let the water sit for over a month before saying anything?
I’ve seen this before. In most condos the water heaters are tucked away in the back of a closet or store room. If and when they leak the water will travel into any crack it can find, you may not have ANY water in your unit at all, the guy underneath you is screwed though. If it gets in between a wall in his house he may not find it for a while. When most condos are built they lay them out so the mechanical rooms are stacked on top of each other from unit to unit. It makes running the plumbing easier and cheaper.
What you really need to do it put one of those pans under your new water heater, they have a sensor on them that shuts off the water supply to the unit if the pan gets any water in it. Their not expensive, and it will keep this from happening again. Also, if you have a washing machine in your unit get those braided steel water lines for the machine water supply, those crappy rubber ones are bombs waiting to go off. the braided steel are bullet proof. It’s a $25 investment that will save you $2500 if the rubber ones leak.
Oh one other thing, your insurance company is watching. I’ve seen this too many times. A pipe bursts in a basement ruining a family room. The homeowner puts in a claim for what amounts to carpet replacement. (Cheap) But the next time something REALLY big happens, they put in a claim… guess what?
They get dropped by their insurance company and what they don’t tell them is EVERY other insurance company out there has a record of your claims history. Good luck finding a new company.
very good responses so far… thanks for your comments…
things just got messier…
I just got off the phone with the neighbor who’s unit was messed up with the water and mold… apparently the leak has been going on since June… she told my tenants and the tenants assured her the issue was being resolved… at one point they said they were on the phone with me as they were talking with her. (i’ve never met them, only the management company has dealt with them)… when nothing was resolved back in June… she contacted the HOA and they did nothing… she asked the HOA for the owners(me) phone number… they gave her the tenants number… he never returned her calls… the HOA told her they mailed me two letters in june detailing the problem but I never got them (old address was on file but all my other mail has been fowarded)… The neighbor could not get a hold of me or the property management co. to complain about the smell in her apartment cause by my water heater… (weird cause the HOA has delt with my management co. a few times on other issues, don’t know why they didn’t contact my co. about this issue)… fast forward to september… there is a notice on my deadbeat tenant’s door to pay rent or quit (didn’t know he was a deadbeat)… the neighbor got the management info. from that notice… three days later the management co. started dealing with the problem in my unit…
i just talked with the guy who did the repairs on my unit… he said he’s never seen the mold so bad… two walls of the garage were black… when he opened the walls it was just as bad… (neighbor said my tenant would leave garage door open cause of the odor). The repairs were finished today… the guy said he’s going to charge my property management co. around $2500 for the repairs… (he told me more in one conversation than they have in 6 months)
The neighbor said since she couldn’t get a hold of anyone regarding my unit… she filed a claim with ins. co., they had three people come look at it… they already cut her a check for $2100 and said they wouldn’t cover the mold, the $2100 is just for water damage… she’s on the hook for the mold. She has a quote from a contractor to fix the water damage for $4100… he’s to come out on friday… I asked her about my guy… and she said he did a good job of fixing my place and took care of the mold quickly… i asked her if he could give her a quote and maybe do the job… she said that would be great cause she liked him…
that’s where i’m at… now what?? wait for her insurance company to come after me?? I could/should pay for my guy to fix her place and to get rid of the mold… but I still owe the insurance co… plus her $500 deductible, plus some hutch that was quoted at $1400 for repair cause the wood absorbed water… am i just out of luck… i know the buck stops with me… but is my tenant liable at all (for knowing about the lead and not reporting it) or the HOA for not getting a hold of my management co. when they first heard of the issue back in June… it seems to me it’s time to get an attorney to sort this out… i gotta get the tenant outta there… he’s been late many times and now this… the property management co. seems to be flaking on me…
what I guess I’m going to do… is pay for my own damage $2500… pay the actual costs for the neighbor’s damage and mold removal and her $500 deposit plus try to get her to reduce the rate to fix the hutch… then get the tenant out, then change property management co.'s…
suggestions on my next step?? you’d think I would have heard from her ins. co. by this point… is there a chance they won’t hit me up for the $2k??
If your neighbor’s insurance company has already paid her claim then let her pay your guy or her contractor out of those funds. If it is insufficient to cover the cost then you should pick up the remainder.
So long as the insurance proceeds plus anything you pony up covers her damages then she is made whole and her $500 deductible is a moot point (you don’t pay that seperately). If on the other hand you pay for all of the repairs 100% out of pocket then she is committing insurance fraud by making a claim for which she has already been made whole. my 2 cents.
This is the kind of stuff Mike (Propertymanager) is talking about when he says the expenses are 50% of gross rents. You may think you’re cashflowing fine and expenses are only eating up 25-30% of your gross…then BOOM water leak and mold galore. Something else to think about as you’re reading this.
ok… working with the neighbor to get things fixed… any recommendations on getting an attorney in a city you don’t live in??? attorney.com?? anyone have a good one in vegas??