I live in a condo. When I bought this unit, I thought it was a great way to get into the housing market – no outside upkeep, and I get to build some equity. But there are downsides.
One weekend last year, my upstairs neighbour went away for the weekend. While he was out of town, his water heater unit failed, and it started leaking. I woke up to a soaked kitchen ceiling, and water dripping onto my floor! Eventually, our property manager came and had to get a locksmith to break into my neighbour’s place and get the water shut off.
Well, I wasn’t happy, but figured: it wasn’t my fault. His insurance will pay.
Then the fun began. His insurance would NOT pay for the damage to my unit. They said that it would have to be covered under the condominium’s insurance policy. So, I called the property manager. They said that they’d check with the insurer for the whole complex. Turns out, that insurer didn’t want to pay for anything inside my unit – and the surface of the walls facing into my unit were my responsibility! (How can you detach the inside surface of the wall from the rest of it???) So they said they’d replace any damaged drywall, but all painting and damage inside my unit was mine. So I went to my insurance, who told me to go back to my neighbour since the water had come from his unit and my insurance only covered water damage from water that came from inside my unit!
In the end, I badgered our condo board and managed to get my ceiling and decorating inside my unit covered. But this was sure an eye-opener.