Leaky Toilet Noise Disturbs the Condo Peace. Shoddy Repair Work Disturbs the Owner!

N.H. from Alberta, Canada writes:

Dear Mister Condo,

I had issues with a continuous flow of water from my toilet. Although the flap is closed, it’s not filling water in the tank. I did not know that flowing noise had affected the units below me, & made complaints to the manager. Got a call ” someone is coming to check your water between 9-10am” That’s all. I thought they are checking each unit of our building due to murky water issues as posted in our mailroom & elevators. I let the guy in. I was surprised why he went to my bathroom fixing it. I told my kids, how did this guy knew about my toilet? Two days later, a lady phoned me if my toilet was fixed. I said No, it started to run again unless I close the rubber flap manually with my finger. She asked if she can send Environment ??? to come fix it. I said No, my son can fix it. Then I got an invoice to pay the condo a back charge of over $500.00 for 5 hours labor including 1 hour travelling. I relayed the message to the manager that I am not paying. I was not made aware of the complaints made, & did not specify what that guy was doing. Then for the weekend, I intentionally let the water run again all night to prove that the plumber’s work was not successful. They got complaints again. One lady came up & told me to shut off my toilet. Then the caretaker phoned that I should shut off the switch underneath my toilet which I did. Few days after, my son came & fixed it in 10 minutes time. I also read in their March 31 board meeting minutes that they found where the noise came from & the owner will pay. This is totally without my knowledge what was happening. My manager just went ahead & did her thing without telling me anything. Today, my manager left a phone message that it is a by law. Is she right? If not, I`ll fight it in court & go to the media Go Public. Thank you very much for your kindness on helping a senior like me. Thank you for responding & for your advice.

Mister Condo replies:

N.H., thank you for your letter and let me express how sorry I am that your situation was not handled better all the way around. You seem like a reasonable person who meant no harm and was very willing to use a “common sense” approach to fix a problem that you were largely unaware of having an effect on your neighbors. That being said, “common sense” and common interest communities don’t always exist together. Your by-laws define what is and isn’t acceptable. The reality is that you had a faulty toilet valve of some sort creating a noise nuisance for your fellow unit owners, who have the right to a peaceful environment as defined in your by-laws. The neighborly way to approach this would have been to alert you to the problem and ask you to fix it or offer to have a repairman come fix it at your expense. While I don’t agree with the customer service or lack thereof that you received during this little fiasco, it sounds like the problem is now resolved. That the good news. The bad news is that you are being stuck with a $500 repair bill for a repair job that didn’t work and that you don’t want to pay for. Here is where “common sense” goes out the window and the association’s governance documents will come into play. It is quite possible that the association has the right to dispatch a repairman to your unit at your expense. The only way to know for sure is to check your by-laws and see what they say about handling unit repairs, especially those repairs that cause damage or nuisance to neighboring units. It may be cheaper to simply pay this bill than try to fight the association. Perhaps you can offer to split the bill with them or ask them for a refund from the repairman since he didn’t actually fix the problem. The bottom line is that the repairman was hired by them but at your expense, as per association documents. They should expect that the repair was done properly and at a reasonable price. Neither are true. If they can negotiate a lower bill or a waiving of the bill for failure to perform the repair, you might benefit from the savings. If the dollar amount were a good deal higher, I might suggest you hire an attorney and fight it but at $500 it would cost more to fight it than just pay it. And keep your son handy for any other repairs that he can make so quickly. If his handyman skills had been made at the beginning of this problem, none of this would have happened. I wish you all the best!