Condo Association Management Blog

I can see both sides. In this case, there must have been leaking already in the unit below. If the upstairs owner was unaware of the leak, it must have been the downstairs owner to initiate the process. 
 
This is one of those situations where time of the essence... and the HOA was not in a position to wait around for a unit owner to get estimates. 
 
Upstairs guy maybe should be happy it was caught early enought that it only cost $800.

What State is the property located in? Is this truly an HOA? If it is, I fail to see why the association was involved in the first place. We would need more information than provided to give you an answer as something isn't right with the unfolding of events.

review your bylaws. Many Condo bylaws have a provision that if damage caused by a defective appliance is such that it is not visible or apparent (i.e. water under a refrigerator or a dishwasher) that the cost of damage external to the unit shall be born by the association. To do any less would impose an unmanageable burden on unit owners.

@Scott Adler Sounds like reasonable bylaws, but I would hate to be on a condo board that has to judge if it was or was not "apparent". I know that sounds silly, but I envision unit owners saying "I didn't know it was leaking" even if they did. 
 
 
 
It invites a gray area and I think situations are easier if it's more cut and dry.

"Not visible or apparent". Not good wording. If it's not visible or apparent to the resident / owner o the unit, how is it supposed to be visible or apparent to the association. 
 
Typically condos have wording about common area piping being the responsibility of the association. And more wording that any utility serving only one unit the property of the unit owner and/or piping within the unit the same. Curious to know if it was that much water, how the owner didn't realize he had a leak. Bottom of your cabinets should have been wet and you should have seen some visible water damage somewhere..... 
 
The fact that the water stopped when turning off the water to your unit, would indicate it was coming from your unit.  
 
Your condo docs would stipulate who is responsible.  
 

I'm the person who submitted the question. 
 
This occurred in CA. 
 
In the CC&R (I believe), there is a section for "dedicated items", which are defined as items that only serve the unit to which it belongs. Later it states, "Damage caused to any other unit due to an owner's failure to maintain any dedicated item is the responsibility of the owner whose item caused the damage." 
 
The leak was not apparent from my unit because it was leaking under the dishwasher. The water damage was isolated to the alcove where the dishwasher sits. The plumber had to physically pull out the dishwasher and reconnect the machine to see the leak. 
 
I understand that from the above section it appears that I'm responsible for the damages, and I have already filed an insurance claim for the units below me; however, I felt and feel blindsided by this bill. 
 
The work order forwarded to me has someone else's signature and initials. After he shut off the water, the plumber offered to come back the next day, so it wasn't an emergency at this point. If I had known that I would be directly stuck with the bill, I'd have told him to come back the next morning (as he offered). Also, I'm not sure how this factors into the equation, but during the course of his investigation, he caused more water damage to the units below. He turned on the dishwasher (while it was still in the alcove) before pulling the machine out, which caused more water damage. 
 
In this case, shouldn't the HOA's management have paid the bill first, and then tried to reclaim the money from me later? Also, shouldn't they have notified me that I might be responsible for the bill? Until I saw the bill, at no point was I told that I may be held responsible. 
 
I've asked the plumber to talk directly to my insurance so I'm not the middleman, but I still feel very uncomfortable about the whole situation.

@John IMO, your leak = your expense, however, I do find it odd that you are being billed directly. Unless it is a new association, I would guess there is at least $800+ in reserves. As a condo treasurer, I would suggest that the association pay the bill, and then assess your unit to replenish the reserves. My association would probably even allow payments over a period of time, such as six months.

I've had an issue with my HOA that is nearly identical, but the way my HOA handled it was very vindictive toward me. Very similar to you. I'm not denying responsibility for my leaking plumbing (which I too had no way of seeing, as it was in the walls), but the way they handled it cost me 5x what it should have and they totally ignored the CC&Rs in the procedure they followed in dealing with it. I have filed a small claims lawsuit against them and I'm pretty sure I'll win. The mgmt. company owner agrees and he's the one who has to show up in court. My HOA did not follow any procedure, claiming my case was an "emergency" when it was not. Photos prove this. It was a very slow leak causing damage to a garage wall below. Small claims court is very easy and judges don't like corrupt HOAs. It sounds to me like they never gave you proper notification that there was a problem. Take lots of pictures of the damage to the unit below, because they will probably try to bill you for that too. You are responsible for the damage, but whether or not they gave you the proper notice is certainly according to the CC&Rs in question. Also check your CC&Rs to see if you are allowed to hire your own contractor to make repairs, rather than using theirs. Since you're in CA, take a look at the Condominium Bluebook (condobook.com). Excellent resource for referencing how civil code, CC&Rs and procedure come together. Good luck.