Hello all,
Thanks for this wonderful community.
I own a townhome in SoCAL which is currently rented out. both the guest and master bathrooms in my unit happen to be on top of the garages of two different neighbors. One of the neighbors reported an intermittent/minor leak into their garage. They got the HOA plumber to look at the leak who cut out a portion of the neighbor's garage ceiling. He did not see any leak happening at the time he was present but there was some mild dampness and just based on the fact one of our bathroom is above their garage just casually suspected that leak was from my unit's guest bathroom. After a day the neighbor claimed/informed our renter that the small leak seemed to happen when they heard shower/bathtub being used above (I guess with the cut portion on her garage ceiling,,,could hear water flow clearly thereafter hence the claim). My property manager asked renter to stop using that bathtub immediately and is getting a plumber to check out the leak...is suspecting the gasket which he said plumber will replace anyway. I have also asked to check for any other possible sources.
questions
- Is there liability established based on the story so far? From past experience unless the leak/damage was due to negligence (unlike a hidden/unconfirmed leak like it is here) the neighbor has to take care of the leak/damage on their side? (which is thankfully minimal as of now)
- No specific ask from neighbor so far apart from checking bathroom on our end. Apart from HOA plumber coming to do a check I am not sure if they have called a plumber to look into the leak further.
- I am open to dealing with this the right way but also don't want to jump the gun. I have landlord/dwelling insurance but am not sure whether to report this to insurance right away? Or wait till we fix the gasket or things on our side to see if it fixes the neighbor's issue. Or is it better to have insurance bring their plumber/experts in from the get-go instead?
- On a related note, I had other unrelated plumbing issues fixes via insurance when i lived in the home but am not sure what my landlord/dwelling insurance covers now.
Would appreciate any suggestions on the right way to proceed in this matter.
Thanks in advance!
