A few months ago, we had to send a plumber out to our daughter Sierra’s condo, because the drain for the washing machine was clogged. He snaked the pipe and pulled out some tree roots, which seemed to be the cause of the clog. So, last month, when she complained about a leak in the kitchen, I was afraid it was that same tree root doing its damage further down the line.
Plumbers sure save a lot of messes! Photo from Creative Comments.
The kitchen did have a little water on the floor and it kept pooling up, but only to a point. There was also a small trickle going into the second bedroom (her roommate was away for the summer). When I opened the door, there was 1/2 inch of water over the entire bedroom. And it had been building up there for at least a couple of days. We bought a shop vac to vacuum it up and got a plumber out again. Luckily, the water was coming from the supply line to the refrigerator, not from the pipes. But the damage was done.
Crews pulled up the flooring tiles and padding and set up fans to dry everything out. Insurance paid for that demolition. The insurance adjuster came out and wrote up an extensive estimate for the repairs that were going to be needed. They wrote a check, we hired the contractors and bought the material, and the condo got fixed.
So, why did WE have to take care of this?
From “The Ins and Outs of Condo Insurance”
What HOA Insurance Is Typically Responsible For
- Damage to the building exterior.
- Damage to common areas and shared amenities.
- Injuries guests sustain in common areas.
Based on this, it’s clear that when we thought it might be a leak from the pipe and/or a crack in the foundation, it would have been covered by the HOA policy. The internal source meant it had to be covered by our own insurance.
That’s why it’s important to have insurance on every property, whether a finished house, a house under construction, a condo, or a new build.
Hermann says please like and share!