J.R. from outside of Connecticut writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
I am a contracted snow plow operator for a condo association. While pushing snow in the parking lot, I damaged a garage door. The damage was isolated to the bottom panel of a steel door. there is no other damage to the doors other 3 panels of the garage door. The door is 15 years old and the company that manufactured the door is no longer in business to obtain and replace the one panel. How much of the door am I responsible to replace?
Mister Condo replies:
J.R., I am sorry that you find yourself in this situation but I am proud of you for standing up and admitting that you damaged the door. The answer really depends on local law. As a general rule, if you break it, you must repair it to like kind condition, meaning, you would have to have the damage repaired so that it didn’t look like the door was damaged. Also, this is often a matter left to insurers to settle out. I assume you have insurance for this type of event. You can submit a claim and let the condo owner do battle with your insurer to get what they are entitled to. If you are trying to avoid making a claim, then you may be at the mercy of the unit owner as to what they are willing to accept. That might include replacing the entire door seeing as they old style door is no longer available. It is a sticky wicket to say the least. You might want to look into local law or speak with a local attorney to see what liability you have. I wish you a speedy resolution.