All Forum Posts by: Aiko Klein

Thanks for asking. It's a shared panel for four units, not a regular breaker box. The breaker box in the unit was fine. The buss bars on the main panel were corroding to be exact. The electrician determined that and did something to temporarily stop the arcing. Yes, we urged the HOA to fix the problem in the main panel because we knew it was a serious fire hazard but they kept delaying the decision to fix it for months. Right now it feels like the HOA is doing whatever is most convenient for them.

The HOA rules do not state that the homeowner has to fix the main panel, just the subpanel but in the electrical quote it clearly says the problem is in the main panel, not the breaker box in the unit. I feel like the Management contracts themselves but asking us to pay for something that is not mentioned in the owner's responsibility list. But this multi-unit panel, could it be considered the subpanel?

My family owns a condominium in California. The history is that there was serious electrical arching in our unit starting about a year ago. We had an electrician check the inside of the unit and the problem was at the main electrical panel in the garage. We've been going back and forth with the HOA arguing about who will pay for the repairs. Finally last week, without agreement, the HOA proceeded to hire an electrician and repair the main panel. Now they are asking us to pay for the full cost for the repairs.

What is confusing is that the main panel was faulty(broke from normal wear and tear) but it affects only our unit. We feel that since it's the main panel the HOA should cover the cost. HOA says we should cover the cost because it affects only our unit. At this point it is a grey area so we are planning on proposing to pay for half of the cost and they incur the other half. Any thoughts on how to handle this situation?