Questions about roof leakage in condo (HOA)
Feb 24 2008The House Detective by Barry Stone, Certified Home Inspector
Dear Barry: I own several condos in a large building. Recent roof leakage caused $4,100 in damages to my unit. The homeowners association (HOA) has agreed to repair the roof but will not repair the damage to my unit. Part of the problem is their neglect of normal roof maintenance. They allowed pine needles to accumulate on the roof and in the gutters, and this affected roof drainage. Is there any way to make them repair my unit? Tom
Dear Tom: If the HOA has not maintained the roof in a responsible manner, that weighs against their disclaimer of liability for consequential damages. You should check the documents that govern your condo complex to see how HOA responsibilities are spelled out. If the HOA is required to maintain the roof, that increases their liability for damages to your unit. If they remain firm in their refusal to make interior repairs, you might test the issue in small claims court. For a nominal filing fee and a few hours of inconvenience, you might be able to enforce your position.
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Thank you for your information as a renter in a much talked about Leaking Development, here is SLO RANCHO OBISPO HOA, our roofs have leaked for over two years, Mold has grown all over fire place areas ceilings, walls now under the carpets. The HOA says they will NOT cover the problems since the builder RW Hertel & Sons is already being sued for the defective homes which we are informed all the homes have leaked at one time or another.
The HOA is in financial difficulty due to the builder refuses to fix the issues time and time again. The HOA says they are broke and since some owners have a Lawsuit against the HOA and Builder the best thing is to move out. Some answer but we are going to do that when school is over. But it is a nightmare to live in a HOA with lousy cheap homes.
I too am way to familiar with the Rancho Obispo HOA’s on going failure to resolve the many defects in the RW Hertel & Sons development. I have read thus far 6 reports on the homes from the CSLB i still have another 44+ to read all pretty much say the same thing. Rancho Obispo Homes built by Ron Hertel Robert Fowler and Thomas Habbick all now doing a wine business called 5 Mile Bridge, all the homes according to the official State Reports, Insurance Investigation Reports and Engineer reports say ALL homes Inspected are in fact Defective and not to industry standards or building codes.
In other words the homes Hertel built and sold are Crap.
Hi,
I am currently on the Board of Director’s of my HOA and the lead on a committee to plan and execute a re-roofing project. We hired a Construction Manager and he prepared a bid package for roofing companies. We asked that we see the bids in three ways. Using a low-end composition shingle, using a medium level composition shingle, and using a high-end composition shingle. Now that we see the bid package we noticed the shingles being specified are either 50 year shingles or higher. To our mind low end would have been a 30 year shingle, medium a 40 year shingle and high would have been 50 and up. When we asked our CM about this he replied that, due to issues of liability for the HOA and for the contractors on the job, we had to put on roofing that would last for at least 30 years. My question to you is, is there a law that I’m unaware of stating this liability?
We are in California and title 24 may also come into play during our selection process.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give.
Naomi