I had a very similar experience when I moved into my building 6 years ago. Before I actually moved in, I hired an electician to install a light fixture and he discovered that there was water in the ceiling - the only thing above my unit was the roof. I immediately alerted the Super and Management. Management assured me that the problem would be resolved when I moved in. Three months later, we had a torrential downpour that resulted in water coming through my ceiling light fixture and ultimately created a hole in my celing and soaked my bed, brand new carpet, etc. For MONTHS the board and management ignored me and did not correct the problem. I finally consulted with an attorney who encouraged me to go to small claims court for the damages I incurred (because they were under $5,000). I did and won. Management refused to pay and I wound up getting a judgment issued against them - so they wound up having to give me even more than I actually was awarded by the judge for refusing to comply with the order. I had the Sherriff's dept seize the money from their account.

Later, I joined the board and learned that the board at the time of my leak was very aware of the problem. They knew my building had roofing issues all along and were told by Rand Engineering that they needed to replace the roof. For whatever reason they ignored the Engineer's report and instead chose to put $500,000 worth of new siding on the building instead to make it 'look pretty.' The property manager was eventually ousted for stealing the co-ops money and when our current management company came on board they worked to address the problems in the form of patchwork and we are now looking to do a complete replacement.

Since you have actually been dealing with this for 5 years, I would suggest going through your homeowners insurance because I'm sure you have way more than $5,000 in damage from water coming through your ceiling for 5 years. Have them do a mold inspection, because I'm pretty sure you have got to have some after that kind of moisture coming in your unit for so long. You can get your own attorney in the meantime, but your insurance company will go after the building regarding the roof repair because they don't want to spend thousands of dollars restoring the conditions of your unit only for the same thing to happen again because your management and board are too laxed to have the problem fixed.

It will probably take more time to resolve, but definitely shouldn't take you 5 years. Call the Dept. of Buildings as well and let them see your unit and they can order the building to fix it and possibly fine them for having you live under those conditions. Call the media too and shame your building into fixing that roof over your unit. Good luck!