Pipe burst in my condo and flooded my condo and condo below me. What now?

Question

Last night I came home to a disaster. My condo flooded and caused damage to the condo below me. I don't have insurance that covers this. What is the standard procedure with something like this? Will my neighbor's insurance cover the damage to his condo? Do I offer to pay for the deductible?

Answer 1

Oh my. Why do people answer questions on here when they don't know what they're talking about?

If the pipe break was sudden and accidental, you have no liability for repairs to your neighbor's unit, They should have a condo-owners policy to take care of their damages. That is just part of the problem with condo living.

Not knowing what state you are in, limits the information I can give for this question. In general terms, usually the condo assn. is going to be responsible for the damages behind the walls. Your condo policy will pay for damages to your personal property (contents), floor & wall coverings and the like.

Call your condo-owners insurance company and report the claim and let them sort it out. Do not offer to pay for anyone elses damages. You are not responsible for that, as long as you didn't do something to create the leak.

Answer 2

You might want to brace yourself for this.

You are about to get the BEJEEZUS sued out of you.

If this happened as you described and the burst pipe in YOUR condo flooded your neighbors condo, then you are responsible to pay their damages. (If the pipe was in a common area...and you'd be wise to pray that it did....then the association would be responsible, but it sounds as if it was inside your condo). And despite what the self professed 'expert' above said...'a sudden and accidental' burst pipe does not absolve you of any liability if it can be proven that the burst (even if it was sudden) was caused by a lack of maintenance that you should have been responsible for.

You don't have insurance for this.

Your neighbor may have insurance to cover their loss, but even if their insurance pays for their loss, if it was your fault, THEIR insurer is going to sue YOU for causing the loss.

But if there are other items that the insurance doesn't pay, like inconvenience or non-covered items....the neighbors will sue you separately.

Both cases will likely win. So you will likely pay.

If you are lucky, you might be able to escape under $25,000, but where are you going to come up with that money? You may have to get another mortgage....or perish the thought....sell the condo to get enough cash to pay off the obligations.

This is another sad example of another hard lesson from the school of hard knocks.

A condo insurance policy which would have paid both to fix your place and replace your damaged contents AND paid to make your neighbor whole again would have cost about $10-15 a month, depending on where you live.

Pretty cheap considering what you are now facing and what you have to lose.

Answer 3

Condos are a real problem with insurance, even if all parties have it.

If you don't have any insurance on your contents, you could be in big trouble. If the pipe that burst was inside your unit (and you are the owner), then you are responsible for the maintenance of that pipe (even though it is a common element and falls under the structure of the condo). At least, that is my understanding from being on the Board of Directors of a condo corporation.

No matter what, the condo board will start out denying the claim. They won't want to pay it from the corporation's overall insurance policy because claims cause the policy premiums to go up and that means condo fees go up. No one likes that.

Your neighbour is victim in this. His or her insurance may also refuse to pay because the damage doesn't originate from inside that unit; it originated from inside yours.

You absolutely have to contact the board or property manager as soon as possible. The faster you get folks aware of the issues and willing to talk to you about next steps, the better.

Answer 4

I assume you own the condo, and thus would be required to have homeowner's insurance if there is a mortgage on the place. Apparently you rent, but you did not say. If you own, YOU are responsible for repairs if the pipe was coming from say YOUR toilet, kitchen sink, washbasin, laundry, etc. However, you really need to get a hold of your condo board, a plumber, and an INSURANCE AGENT! Why you don't have insurance is beyond me! Are you crazy? Rhetorical. Even if you rent, you need to have renter's insurance, at least for YOUR own belongings. The owner of the condo is NOT repsonsible for your personal stuff. If you do rent, then the owner of the condo is responsible for repairs to both condos (but NOT the personal contents). I suggest you take some responsiblity and learn a few things and GET SOME INSURANCE for future mishaps.

Answer 5

Wow, this sucks.

Grab a copy of your association by-laws and read through the insurance part and see what it says the master policy covers. You won't get any contents coverage as that would have been covered by your own policy, but the master policy follows what the by-laws says it will cover and hopefully that means it'll cover any property damage to the structure, including your's and the neighbors (not including contents). If your neighbor has a condo policy it'll cover their contents. As far as paying the deductible, that would be a nice gesture...as long as the pipe burst is your fault.

In any case contact the condo association president right away and have them file a claim with the agent for the master policy.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Bummer!!

Condo insurance covers YOUR stuff, inside your house, and YOUR liability. So your neighbor's insurance isn't going to give YOU any coverage, unless he CAUSED the pipe to burst - ie, you're going to have to SUE him before his insurance will pay you for your stuff, and you'll have to WIN.


And you probably won't win, unless he was swinging from the pipes or something.

The MASTER policy might cover some of the damage to your structure, however. So you need to contact the condo association manager, and file a claim.

You should ALSO call an insurance agent, and get a condo policy ASAP. It's CHEAP!! Like under $200 a year.

Answer 7

If the people in unit 8 don't own their condo then the liability should be with the condo management personnel. Your mom needs to have them pay for the damages. If unit 8 is owned by the people who live there, then their insurance should pay for the damages. If all of them refuse to pay, then your mom needs to get a lawyer and sue for the damages.

Answer 8

you need to find out what caused it. it may be something the condo association is responsible for. if not, you are going to be liable to pay for not only your damages but the other condos also. They will not want to claim on their insurance if you are liable, because that will show as a claim on their insurance record. You are most likely going to have to pay for it all

Answer 9

i would get ahold of the board, who manages all the condos. and find out . but all condo's and renters should have insurance.. i use to live in a condo and it was manitory that we had some type of insurance, but it seems to me that it was not your fault what happen you weren't even home. but talk to and insurance man and find out what can be done. and of course the board,

Answer 10

As long as the pipe was something the association was responsible for (in the wall), they will be resopnsible for repairs. But they will not cover damage to personal property like, clothes, computer, furniture, carpet etc... that is covered by the policy you dont have.

If it was a pipe that you had responibility or control of, like under a sink, sorry!