My question involves a condominium located in the State of: California
I am a landlord of a unit I own in Culver City, CA. I currently reside on the east coast, so this has been a major pain for me..here's what happened:
On Nov. 4th, something went wrong with my toilet (I'm not sure what. I am sending a plumber to check it out this weekend) - the maintenance manager for my HOA CLAIMS it was a part on my toilet that went bad, leading to the supply line breaking, which resulted in a huge leak. I do not trust the HOA maintenance manager to accurately report the problem, because I know how these guys try to get out of responsibility.
Anyway, this leak occurred at 2am on a weekend. I was not informed of what happened for 2 days. The maintenance manager left me a voicemail saying, they could not reach my tenant to get into the unit, and water was leaking into the common hallway. I spoke with the tenant the next day, and he said the HOA had sent in a company to dry my carpet. I thought, at this point, they were doing it because the leak was on their end. I admit, I probably should have filed an insurance claim as soon as my tenant told me this..anyway, it was taking them forever to dry the carpet.
I asked my real estate agent to go to the unit and take a look at what was happening. I am all the way on the east coast and have no way of inspecting my property. She sent me back photos showing giant stains on my carpet. The tenant told me, the stains were from the dehumidifiers the HOA's company brought in.
a day or so later, I get a call from the maintenance supervisor telling me, I owe the HOA $3700!!! I got into an argument with him. I pointed out, I should've been notified of the leak immediately so that I could file a claim..plus, there is no proof one way or another that this was a problem on MY end. Also, I brought up the stains that their company caused. I also chastised him for not calling me for 2 days--he claimed they "didn't have my number", which is RIDICULOUS. I have lived there since Dec. 2008, and they've had my nnumber AND email address, the whole time.
At this point, I DID file a claim with my homeowners insurance (Farmers) and they are just starting the claim process.
I understand that the HOA has certain powers to deal with emergency situations, especially water leaks, but they did not even give me the chance to fix it. Plus, what is their liability re: the stained carpet??
For $3700 to dry the stupid carpet, I could have just had it replaced!!
What should I do?

