Help! My downstairs neighbor has a leak, possibly coming from my condo

[Nubia Silva]

My condo sits on the second floor. The downstairs neighbor came up to tell my tenant that he has a leak in his bathroom ceiling, which is right underneath my condo's shower. The downstairs neighbor notified his landlord, and they told us that someone will come to take a look at their condo and they would let us know. A few days went by and we didn't hear anything from them, so I reached out to the neighbor to ask what was happening. He said the bubble is there and their landlord has not called a plumber to look at the damage. In the meantime, I had asked my tenant not to use that shower until this is resolved. Fortunately, the condo has two showers.

 a plumber will out tomorrow, but I don’t understand how they find the source of the leak, if I can’t authorize for them to cut the dry wall on a condo that’s not mine. shouldn the owner downstairs call a plumber? 

My understanding is that my insurance covers from studs into my condo. 

The association emailed me today and said this was an owner responsibility for me to call the plumber and coordinate access to the condo downstairs. 

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!

[Allan C.]

@Nubia Silva seems like relatively cheap repairs so I would advise to not make an insurance claim if you intend to expand your rental portfolio. You’ll likely run into carriers that won’t like you making small claims, thus harder to get coverage in future.

What type of floors do you have in your shower - tub, prefab or tiles? The easiest thing to do is have a plumber open the ceiling beneath you to diagnose. Hopefully it’s just issues with your drain piping, which is a quick fix. If you have issues with a tiled shower floor then that’s a different ballgame - but I still wouldn’t make a claim.