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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    1

    Angry Water Has Been Leaking for 30 Days

    My question involves a condominium located in the State of: Illinois City of Chicago

    There has been water leaking into my unit for the past 30 days. It is a first floor unit and there are two units above me. The plumbers have not been able to locate the leak after four trips and the water continues to drip. It's been a nightmare to say the least. What bothers me the most is that the property manager for the building is not treating this situation with urgency and neither is the unit above (even though the water is definitely underneath their hardwood floors). The plumbers even noted that their floors were warped in their laundry closet, which is right above the location where the water is penetrating my unit. Is there a set time period that the property manager is required by law to identify the source of such a leak and repair it? Who will be responsible for mold abatement?

    Regards

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    1,995

    Default Re: Water Hass Been Leaking for 30 Days

    Quote Quoting chicagoloft
    View Post
    My question involves a condominium located in the State of: Illinois City of Chicago

    There has been water leaking into my unit for the past 30 days. It is a first floor unit and there are two units above me. The plumbers have not been able to locate the leak after four trips and the water continues to drip. It's been a nightmare to say the least. What bothers me the most is that the property manager for the building is not treating this situation with urgency and neither is the unit above (even though the water is definitely underneath their hardwood floors). The plumbers even noted that their floors were warped in their laundry closet, which is right above the location where the water is penetrating my unit. Is there a set time period that the property manager is required by law to identify the source of such a leak and repair it? Who will be responsible for mold abatement?

    Regards
    I lived in a condo once where there were leaks from the roof to the units on the top floor, and despite nearly a year of roofers looking at it, no one seems to know the cause. Also, I worked for a company once where there was a leak from the ceiling in one of the offices, and plumbers were sent in constantly, for months, and cannot find a cause. Finally, the architects for the building was contacted, it was newly constructed, and it turned out to be a leak from the roof, from all the way on the other end of the building, which explained why when plumbers were looking for leaky pipes, they can't find any. In fact, someone thought of a roof leak originally, looked and looked at the area above the leak, and didn't see anything either.

    You see, water flows, and finds it's own level, which in this case, is your condo. In fact, in finding the office building roof leak, one has to make the connection that there is a leak right after a rain storm, be there during the storm, and follow the wet spots to it's source before it dries up, assuming the ceiling are opened up to allow visibility. In offices, with dropped ceilings, it could be done.

    In housing units. walls and ceilings may have to be ripped open all over, re-plastered, and painted.

    My best story is, being a landlord responsible for a number of small properties, there was a persistent leak in the basement unit, and more than one waterproofing company was hired, came and looked into it, areas around the basement dug up, walls ripped open to find where the leak came from. Tons of money spent. No luck. It turned out the basement leak started from a small hole on the roof, water came down three floors, winding up in the basement. If it wasn't two tenants complaining to me about plaster flaking off the walls, around the same week, both lined up right above where the basement leak was, that it would even have occured to me that a basement leak is actually a roof leak.

    Having been involved with leaks, it is one of the most perplexing and time consuming problems. Good thing my basement tenant was not a screamer. If she sued, as you are planning to do, all I'll do is call all the waterproofing companies that looked into it, bring them to court, and the judge would say "the owner is trying his best".

    In these cases, the property managers and owner are mercilessly blamed for incompetence. In the condo where I lived, the roof top owners finally got an HOA meeting specifically on the issue of the leaks, and the HOA agreed to hire an engineer to take a look, and the cause, I don't recall what, finally was pinpointed.

    If this is an issue that involved a number of owners, get the HOA involved. It may well be an engineer is needed, and the question is, does the property manager have the authority to spend thousands of dollars or more on a leak?? Setting a deadline is not going to find you a leak. If the leak does not come from a pipe, directly above where the leak is, you can can get a plumber going there everyday, get the property manager place a folding chair and sit out front all day, and a leak still won''t be found.

    Just curious, does it leak constantly, or does it leak after a rainstorm??

    One final thought. In all the cases mentioned above, it took months, or even a year or so, as no one is going to rip open ceiling and walls all over the complex after a leak is reported. You only do this if you can't find a leaky pipe right away. Done in 30 days?? NO.

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