Water Damage from Condo Above

[Jim Justice]

The condo above mine was renovated and new flooring was laid over rotted older flooring. Nothing is sealed, and water, coming from master bathroom above, damages the ceiling and walls in my master bathroom. The first time it happened, the owner, a real estate agent who was flipping the property, and caused the problem, refused to provide insurance information, sold it and left me to file a claim for the damages with my insurance company. The new owner was warned of the problem, but has made no repairs, apparently, and the damage is happening again, just a few months later, damaging the newly installed tiled walls and ceiling in my master bathroom, as before. HOA will not get involved and new owner will not respond. This is a recurring problem now and not likely to go away. Each time I will have to repair, it costs my deductible for me to file with my insurance, and causes a mess until repairs can be finished. If there is enough water, it causes my ceiling to collapse. My insurance company will not get involved with repairing the unit above, and deems subrogation to apparently be a waste of time, and perhaps money. My insurance company is Farmer's Insurance. They will fix the problem and charge me the deductible, but will do nothing to stop it from happening or to reclaim my deductible from the owner of the unit above mine. Who do I go after and how? I must get this merry-go-round stopped. Which agency in the state of Texas should I report this to for possible action on their part? As far as I can tell, there isn't any clear legal path in the law to deal with this, but if you have answers, please share them with me.

[Jerel Ehlert]

Hire a lawyer. The issues are too complex to get into here and the answers will depend on lots more facts than anyone but you and your lawyer want to know. Insurance companies, in general, do a poor job of representing their insured's interests (yours) in claims against others.

Hopefully you got the upstairs seller contact info, because either you or the buyers will drag them into a suit.