# Condo Garage / Pipe Leak - Advice needed!



## bumblebee (Jun 13, 2015)

Hi all I just discovered this forum and am glad I did!

I am going through a divorce and have been renting for the past 4 months a third floor condo (third out of 3 levels, I think there are 8-9 units and 3 deatched garages).  I am pretty friendly with 1 neighbor who happens to live right above my garage.

For the past 4 weeks I have been finding large amounts of water coming from the ground / soil.  This does not happen everyday, but I usually find it in the mornings on my way to work. However I have also found a leak at night once. I assume this is some sort of broken pipe? but know nothing about plumbling. I contacted my landlord ASAP who said the HOA plumber would be investigating and repair. Now from my previous ownership experience, I don't trust HOA's at all which is one reason for this post seeking opinions.

4 weeks later there is still no resolution in sight. According to the HOA plumber / landlord, my neighbors haven't been responsive in setting aside a time where they can test to see who is causing the flooding down below.  I was frustrated and finally called the HOA myself asking why my neighbors have to be invovled as the leak is down below, can't you investigate at the spot of the leak firstr? The plumber sent a message that yes, they do indeed need to run tests and identify the cause, and that it's likely the person right above my garage.

Now this happens to be the one neighbor I chat with here and there, I find it hard to believe it would be him only because he is single , usually gone on the weekends, and told me that his water use is limited to daily showers and washing machine once a week. He said he has never even turned on his dishwasher, and that if his kitchen sink is on it's to wash his hands or a cereal bowl. Since really the shower or dishwasher would only be the large amounts of water  I asked him perhaps he could let me know the next tmie he ran water so I coul see for myself.  He did agree and and both times when he let me know he'd be taking a long shower and washing some clothes I went down to the garage to check..... absolutely no leak at all.  I also feel like unless I have neighbors who dont' shower on a regular basis, if it was one of them wouldn't I be seeing the flooding on a daily basis? Somteimes it happens and won't happen again for another 4-5 days. Could it be washing machine related as those would be used much less often expalning why I don't see it daily?

I am beginning to seruiosly wonder if it's my landlord / HOA being a little shady here. A friend put It in my head that they might be trying to hope to avoid any serious work first in breaking up the ground, and just rather assign blame to a unit above to absorb the costs.

Am I way off base here for not trusting what the plumber / hoA says? Should I knock on the door of each neighbor and just plead with them to please go along with the HOA request? Eveyrone here works and I do realize taking a vacation day just to accommodate me is asking a lot, it's not like I can just point to a person above me and say your shower is clearly leaking into my ceiling.

Opinions would be appreciated, I am getting quite frustrated but do need to decide soon if I should just bug my neighbors or be firm and demand my landlord proactively fix this with or without the HOA plumber. Because of the leaks my place is a cluttered mess as I can't trust keeping any boxes on the garage floor. 

 I have about less than 2 months left on the lease so moving is an option too although I do enjoy this neighborhood and also would hate the hassle to pick up and move again so quick.

Thank you for reading my long post!


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## frodo (Jun 13, 2015)

look in your contract with the condo association,  under maintaince,  look for any type time line,
 contact them with  a certified/registered  letter   cc your lawyer 

or just put cc  and a fake lawyers name on the bottom 

forget phone calls,  and emails..you need documentation that they are breaking your lease


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## slownsteady (Jun 14, 2015)

I'm not sure where you draw the line between leaking and flooding, which affects the severity of the problem - and the solution. How much water are we talking about? 
it's possible that there are more pipes that just the upstairs neighbor's that run through your garage. Is the ceiling open? Are there wet spots on the ceiling? Is it just one spot?
Frodo is right about documenting the communication, has the plumber been to your garage?


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## bumblebee (Jun 15, 2015)

Hi, I probably misused "flooding". I would say it's quite a bit of water enough to cover alot of the right side of the garage floor, but not flooding.  Whenever the leak does occur it tends to not happen again for 2-3 days too. 

Also to be clear the ceiling is not open, and the leaking is not coming from above, which makes me unsure if the culprit is my neighbors above the garage.

The leak seems to come from below the ground / soil,  I am pretty sure plumber used the word soil and also claimed he checked the sprinklers and irrigiation systems to make sure that was not the cause. The plumber has been out but because he keeps insisting on running "tests" with my neighbors nothing has been done. 

I have not tracked my communications but beginning to.  I might just tell my landlord if this isn't fixed in the next couple weeks he can plan on me moving out because regardless of which neighbor is causing it i'm upset that they wouldn't at least investigate at the source. They keep using the neighbor excuse as to why no work is being done!


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## frodo (Jun 16, 2015)

if it is coming from below,  then the guy upstairs does not have to be their.

common darn since should tell them that.

if you want out of your lease,  you will have to prove they broke the lease.

or be liable for the rent, while they try and rerent the  place.

as i suggested, no phone calls,  registerd/return receipt letters only
you want a paper trail


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## slownsteady (Jun 16, 2015)

could be coming up through the floor. Concrete is porous. Is it timed to relate to any rain events? high humidity? Is the ground outside wet?


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## frodo (Jun 19, 2015)

this is posted on the plbg forum also


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## mike607 (Oct 18, 2016)

Bathtub leaking from 2nd floor through my ceiling


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