What are my rights as a condo owner in Florida? We bring you a real life example of a water leak we faced in a condominium (Condo) we manage in Miami Beach, Florida.
NB: Make sure to review the bylaws with a Lawyer each condominium will have their own rules and regulations to follow
Procedure to follow:
1) Fix the Leak in the wall ASAP to prevent further damage
2) Review ByLaws which states:
“All unit owners shale be liable for the expense of any maintenance, repair or replacement rendered necessary by his act, neglect or carelessness, or by that of any member of his family, of his or their guests, employees, agents or lessees, but only to the extent that such expense is not met by the proceeds of the insurance carried by the association”
3) Association is responsible to fix the damages and claim from their insurance policy.
4) If the insurance policy does not cover sufficiently each owner units insurance should cover for their own damages
Case Study – Water Leak inside the wall of a condominium in Miami. What are my rights?
Video Duration · 6mins
YouTube Video Link: https://youtu.be/iXqolH9Yau4
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Understanding of how Condominiums aka Condo’s are run
- Who is responsible for water leaks inside your wall
- Rules and regulations of Condominiums in Miami
- Follow the bylaws of a Condominium
- Having the right team in place when managing a condominium as a rental property in Miami, Florida.
Procedure to follow:
- Turn off water immediately when leaks detected to prevent damage
- Fix the Leak in the wall as soon as possible to prevent further damage
- Review condominium bylaws and state statutes carefully with lawyer after any incident to determine liability. Our examples stated: “All unit owners shale be liable for the expense of any maintenance, repair or replacement rendered necessary by his act, neglect or carelessness, or by that of any member of his family, of his or their guests, employees, agents or lessees, but only to the extent that such expense is not met by the proceeds of the insurance carried by the association”
- Condo Association was responsible to fix the damages and claim from their insurance policy.
- If the insurance policy does not cover sufficiently each condo owner unit’s insurance should cover for their own damages
- Ensure having trusted property manager, real estate attorney, and other professionals readily available for advice.
In this video…
Summary
This video summarizes a case study encountered by Roel van de Ven, owner of Keyrenter Property Management Miami, regarding a water leak incident in a condominium building managed by Keyrenter Property Management Miami West. A pipe burst inside the wall of a unit they manage, causing water damage to 5 units including collapsed ceilings. After reviewing condo bylaws and statutes, it was determined the condo association, not the unit owner, was responsible for repairs since it was not due to unit owner negligence. Key takeaways covered: immediately fixing leaks to prevent further damage, understanding condo bylaws/statutes to determine liability, having a professional team for advice, and standing firm on decisions.
Sections
1. Introducing the Property and Incident
Roel van de Ven introduces himself, his company Keyrenter Property Management Miami, and the condominium building they manage. He then explains the water leak incident where a pipe burst inside a wall of their managed unit, causing severe damage to 5 units including collapsed ceilings.
2. Assessing Responsibilities Under Condo Bylaws/Statutes
Bylaws state owners are only liable for damages due to negligence, which didn’t apply here. After back-and-forth with the association disagreeing, reviewing bylaws and statutes with a real estate attorney affirmed the association was responsible for repairs.
3. Key Takeaways for Handling Condo Issues
Takeaways covered immediately stopping leaks to prevent further damage, understanding condo bylaws/statutes to determine liability, having professional team for advice, and standing firm on decisions instead of giving in to association pressure.
Resources mentioned in this video:
- Roel van de Ven – Property Manager and Owner | Linkedin
For more information reach out to us today…
Keyrenter Property Management Miami West
Address: 8350 NW 52nd Terrace Suite 301, Miami, FL 33166
Phone: (305) 522-6005
Email: [email protected]
Visit: https://keyrentermiamiwest.com/
Video Transcript
Video Duration · 6mins
Roel van de Ven 00:00
Hello there, my name is Roel van de Ven, the owner of Keyrenter Property Management Miami. And this week I want to share with you a case study that we came across. I hope this is useful and you can learn something from it if you were to own a condominium in Miami.
Roel van de Ven 00:17
So let’s dive right in. This is the property as you can see here behind me that we manage. It’s on a Miami beach, a beautiful corner unit overlooking the sea. The building is a little bit older and that’s why we had a plumbing issue that happened within the wall.
Roel van de Ven 00:33
So as you can see here, the bathroom usually looks like this. But then we got the call and yeah, we had a water leak inside the wall. And it affected five different units all the way down. And the unit below as you can see right there, the entire ceiling came down.
Roel van de Ven 00:48
So obviously not a great site and something that we were quite worried about when that happened. Hence I thought I’ll share with you the kind of the procedures that we take as well as some common practices to take when dealing with condominiums and how they work.
Roel van de Ven 01:04
Right. when you’re looking at condominiums, first thing you want to do is obviously fix the leak, right? Do that as soon as possible. I was lucky enough that I was around. So within an hour I was there.
Roel van de Ven 01:16
Plumber was there the next day to get everything fixed. That’s really, really important to try to prevent any future damages. Turn off the water. When we turn off the water heater, we immediately knew that it was coming from our unit.
Roel van de Ven 01:28
Even though it was not visible because obviously it was inside the wall, but you could hear it when you turn the water heater on and off. A little bit about condominiums. Condominiums, all of them work a little bit different.
Roel van de Ven 01:39
It depends on the bylaws, right? But generally speaking, you own everything in between the four walls. That’s obviously part from the owner and anything outside of that, that would be the condominiums responsibility.
Roel van de Ven 01:53
Now, some things could be your responsibility if it’s written like that in the bylaw. So, you know, piping and stuff like that that’s related just to your unit. Maybe from the water heater going to the bathroom or going to the dishwasher anything like that that could be your responsibility but obviously any outside plumbing then that’s for the condominium as a whole.
Roel van de Ven 02:18
Now what’s really important is they run by a board of directors and a president and then they have the bylaws which kind of states what are the rules and regulations and how it’s run so what we did we immediately reviewed the bylaws and it was written there pretty clearly as you can see here I just copy pasted it that owners would only be liable if it wasn’t act neglect or carelessness which obviously this wasn’t the case it’s an old pipe as you could see before that burst inside the wall so there’s not much that we could do about it which means that obviously we were not liable.
Roel van de Ven 02:52
The association obviously didn’t agree with that but there was a lot of back and forth discussions. But at the end of the day they did finally decide to follow what we kind of believed was the right thing to do.
Roel van de Ven 03:07
So yeah, the association was responsible to fix these damages in the folder units below and to claim that from their policy as the right procedure to take. In case the insurance doesn’t cover and the damage is bigger than the insurance claims or is any premiums and that could be taken from the each owner’s unit below from their own insurance would cover those damages of their property as well.
Roel van de Ven 03:33
So that’s the procedure generally what you would take and that’s what we did as well. Very very important, please make sure to review this with a lawyer. We did that as well. It’s important to get professional advice when reviewing these type of documents because they can be a little bit unclear from time to time and obviously you want to check as well whether it’s in line with the statues which again points to about the same message if you act neglect or careless.
Roel van de Ven 04:04
It’s also written in the statues that’s when you would be responsible. So the key takeaway from this is make sure you have a great team in place when you either self -managing or like a property manager like myself.
Roel van de Ven 04:17
I’m very fortunate my partner was there the next day to get the problem fixed right away. I was able to lean and get advice from our real estate attorney who could guide us on where to stand and what to tell.
Roel van de Ven 04:30
Understanding as well that the community manager is hired by the board of directors and the president. So mentioning that she should speak to them and get clarification.
Roel van de Ven 04:46
That’s usually the procedure how to work. That helps a lot to have those team members in place. Like I said before we’ve reviewed the bylaws and statues with a real estate attorney. so that then you have a really good understanding on where you stand.
Roel van de Ven 05:01
And then most importantly, last but not least, stand by your decision. Halfway through, we were going on for about a week and a half discussing on who’s responsible, going back and forth, how those things go.
Roel van de Ven 05:14
And then the owner was tired of it. My client said, I’m willing to just pay for it and get it over and done with. So we told him to stand by our decision. We’ll be happily paying for it as long as obviously the association proves to us that we have to.
Roel van de Ven 05:33
So far, there was only opinions and they weren’t able to give us in writing that it’s written in the bylaws. You’re responsible because of this. So yeah, we stood by it and at the end of the day, they ended up paying for it and obviously got my client off the hook.
Roel van de Ven 05:49
So those are the key takeaways from this case. If you come across any issue like this. Or if you’re tired of managing your property, happy to help you guys out. Reach out to myself and my team we would be happy to take care of any condominiums within Miami.
Roel van de Ven 06:05
Alright, have a wonderful day!
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/iXqolH9Yau4