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Too often in condo apartments there is uncertainty over who deals with a leaking appliance, drain pipe or fresh-water supply line. This is a surprisingly simple question, and runs parallel to what municipal utilities deal with every day when pipes break or leak somewhere between a building on private property and city property. The leak is the responsibility of the party on whose property it lies.
But some condo home owners haven't thought about this before it comes up, so need to learn that all the appliances and plumbing within their home is their personal property. We in our condo homes own personally the dishwasher, the kitchen sink and taps, and the supply lines and drains between them and to and from the exterior walls of our suites. In the bathroom we own the toilet, the sink, tub and the taps, the drains and the tub diverter to the shower head; and obviously must repair them when any of these break or leak.
Note that I said to the "exterior walls of our suites". If my shower backs to a suite boundary wall, with common property or another suite on the other side, my responsibility stops at that wall. A leak in the supply line to my shower or tub within that wall should be repaired at the expense of my condo corporation. That's why I pay monthly condo contributions. But if my shower is served from a wall within my home and that supply line or the drain leaks, it's my job to repair and cover that expense.
A spin-off point is that the responsible party must also cover the cost of repairing any damage done by a water leak from their appliance, fixture or piping. That's in part why every condo homeowner carries insurance, even though the entire building is already insured by the condo corporation. That insurance won't cover damage stemming from my property, so I need my own. If the hose to my washing machine leaks and damages the ceiling and wall of my neighbour downstairs, I'll have to pay to repair and repaint that part of his suite. This isn't something we condo homeowners can wriggle out of; that's the way it is. Whether it's then justified to claim for compensation from our personal homeowner's insurance policy is a secondary question and our own business.
Difficulties with such leaks and repairs arise from two sources. The first is the condo board that wants to avoid expense and tries to make an individual homeowner pay the cost of what should probably be a common-property expense. Avoid this first by letting your plumber tell you where the leak was, and having him bill the building or the suite owner as is appropriate. Second, the board should take a generous attitude. My motto is, "if in doubt, it's common property". If the suite owner is responsible, but tells the plumber he won't pay the bill, then the corporation should pay it. The condo corporation can then bill the suite to recover the expense, and all the authority to collect comes to bear. Don't worry; you'll get your money.
Now for another wrinkle. In some cases a suite owner's plumbing or appliance was responsible for a leak, and whether that owner or the corporation paid to repair the plumbing, the homeowner below is left with a damaged ceiling and wall. Sure, we could tell that homeowner to sue his upstairs neighbour, but how pleasant is that? My approach is that the corporation pays the plumber and repairs everything; the damaged hallway wall, the interior of the downstairs neighbour's suite, and bills everything to the responsible suite. Would a court uphold a board's collection of a debt incurred to repair suite property? I don't know, but a judge surely would have no sympathy for a condo homeowner who leaves his building's common property and his neighbour's property damaged. ‘Case closed, if you ask me.
One more wrinkle. There are those who will say that older condo buildings were surveyed so that suite owners are responsible to the mid-point of walls rather than the modern "paint-to-paint" approach. The implication is that in those walls between suites there is no common-property piping at all; that it's the property of one suite owner or the other, or perhaps both, but not of the condo corporation. Anyone trying to run a condo development splitting these hairs is going to have a very complex building to run. It's just impractical to administer issues this way. I recommend a generous attitude, a paint-to-paint inside-your-suite policy for individual owner responsibility, and the corporation owns and fixes everything else.
No purpose is served by trying too hard to save money, perhaps pitting owner against owner and against their condo board. The priority in governing our condo homes is to fix leaks, repair damage when it occurs, and to encourage every homeowner to maintain the plumbing and water-using appliances within their own suites.
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