In 2012, I bought a condo in a renovated warehouse building. The building has about 16 units total of various sizes. It is a small condo with a bit of a weird layout. It has a stove and a fridge, and there is a shared laundry in the building that is used by several owners. At the time I bought it, I realized that there wasn't a hot water tank in the unit, and figured it was using a shared hot water tank with the costs paid for by my condo fees. This is not the case for all units in the building - some use the shared hot water tank (3 units from what I know), and others have their own. This shared tank is actually located in another unit (a larger commercial unit). I will note at this point that the unit owner where this hot water tank resides is a Board member.
A few months ago (May 2014) I received a notice from the company that manages the condo building that the Board of Directors had decided that each unit needs to install their own hot water tank. They quoted the following section of the Condo Corporation Declaration in support of this:
"Section 2.05 - Maintenance (a) By the Corporation: The Corporation shall maintain the common elements and shall as well maintain the following parts of the units...
(iii) The complete plumbing system within the Property (including plumbing systems for or related to the provision of sanitary sewers for or related to the provision of sanitary sewers and the provision of water), but excluding fixtures, pipes and other plumbing system components located within and service individual units unless the same serve more than one unit, and/or the common elements;
(b) By the Unit Owner: Each owner shall maintain and keep in good repair the parts of his unit not required to be maintained by the Corporation pursuant to Sub-clause (a) hereof, including without limiting the generality of the foregoing, stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washing machines, clothes dryers, hot water tanks and other electrical appliances and fixtures, and heating, ventilating and air-conditioning equipment."
(Bolding was done in the notice)
At a subsequent condo member meeting a few weeks later, I found out that the costs of operating the hot water tank were being covered by the unit owner where the tank resided. Obviously this is unfair to that unit owner, but I was unaware that this was occurring. I also asked if I needed to cover all the costs related to installing a hot water tank (plumbing, electrical, etc) and also stated that I didn't know if there was room for a hot water tank in my unit due to it's small size. The president of the condo board indicated that he would be in contact with me in the short future. I was waiting for him to contact me before proceeding any further.
This past week (Monday), I received a notice that the hot water to my unit would be capped on October 30th. Obviously this was very short notice, but the first thing I did was contact a company to come out and give an estimate on the work that was needed to install a tank. It turns out that due to the size and layout of my unit, it will be very difficult to place a hot water tank, and would require quite a bit of plumbing and electrical work - I'm still waiting on an exact estimate, but we are thinking that the work will cost between 2000-3000 dollars.
I have been attempting to contact the condo board members and the owner of the unit where the hot water tank resides about working out an agreement to share the costs of the hot water tank (use, repair, replacement) as well as reimbursing him for past use. The board and the owner have been ignoring all my phone calls and emails - I haven't heard a word back from them. I also brought up the question of the legality of forcing me to install a hot water tank based on the section of the Condo Declaration Agreement quoted - it seems to be talking more about maintenance of what is currently installed in a unit, not about what needs to be installed. I also read through the entire Condo Declaration Agreement, and there is nothing in it stating that each unit needs to have it's own hot water tank. Also it's not like I snuck a pipe down there and am stealing the hot water - this is how it was originally built.
I have thought about contacting a lawyer about this situation. I bought the unit with access to a shared (common-use) hot water tank, now they are trying to take that away from me. My question is - what can a lawyer do to stop them from cutting off my hot water? If I end up having to spend $2000-3000 dollars installing a hot water tank based on some liberal interpretation of the Condo Declaration, do I have any legal recourse to get this money back from the Board or Condo Corporation for what I see as an unnecessary renovation?
Any other advice for my situation?
Submitted October 27, 2014 at 06:42AM by Craigers666 http://ift.tt/1zxvFNx legaladvice
No comments:
Post a Comment