A.G. from New Haven County, Connecticut writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
My neighbor downstairs toilet was clogged and over flowing causing water damaged to my kitchen, living room and half bath. Condo Association claims he nor his insurance are liable because it was not negligence. Can I take him to small claims court to make him or his insurance pay for damaged caused to my unit?
Mister Condo replies:
A.G., typically your homeowner’s insurance should pay for damage to your unit. That doesn’t mean that you can’t sue the other homeowner but you may be limited to your out of pocket expense for insurance deductible. I offer no legal advice here so please speak with an attorney for a legal opinion on the validity of your claim. Either way, I am sorry that you have this damage to your unit and I wish you good luck in cleaning up your unit and remediating the damage. Be sure to keep a vigilant eye against mold that could also follow a water intrusion event like this. All the best!
The best thing to do is to put in a claim with your insurance company and then let your insurance company fight it out with the upstairs neighbor. Your insurance company will try to subrogate the claim and that may cover your deductible.
Subrogation is a term describing a legal right held by most insurance carriers to legally pursue a third party that caused an insurance loss to the insured. This is done in order to recover the amount of the claim paid by the insurance carrier to the insured for the loss.
I have been told that in CT by law all newer common communities must have the association insurance be the master insurance policy. In a case like this the association insurance would handle first and what they do not cover would then go to the units policy. Is this not true?
M., while it is true that all associations must maintain insurance, interior damage to units is typically handled by the homeowner’s policy. Most associations require that unit owners maintain their own policy for this very reason and to limit the association’s liability. For every “simple” insurance claim that I hear of, there are just as many where there are complications or grey areas that delay the process. Hopefully, all parties are properly insured and all the players are made whole after a claim is made. All the best!