Condo repairs in Boston: Who should pay for contractor damage?

I have two issues, hope you can help.

1. Our complex had an excavating company do work on underground piping. As a result the company busted a pipe not associated with the contracted work, causing a sewer back up in another unit leaving the unit without toilet and water for 8 days.

The unit owner sumitted a bill for a portable toilet and food. The board of trustees felt he should have submitted the bills to his own insurance company, the property manager suggested they reimburse for the toilet and not the food. Listening to property manager, the board paid for the toilet.

Now the board gets the other side of the story from the unit owner, who states that the property manager told him that the company knew they had broken the pipe. The property manager should have not discussed this with the owner before talking to the board and now the board feels that the owner should be filing a claim with their own insurance.

2. During snow removal, the company that does the plowing damaged a fence that borders our complex and made a big gouge in the asphalt in our parking lot. When I questioned the property manager about the plow company fixing the fence (since it borders our property but belongs to someone else) and the gouge in the asphalt, the property manager replied that if we expected the company to fix the fence or the asphalt we could forget them doing work for us again.

I say neither company is the only game in town. The property manager seems to respect the contractors that work for us more than the concerns of the owners.