I own a co-op in Westchester county and a few years ago, my upstairs neighbor's toilet was leaking into my ceiling and caused damage to my ceiling/wall. When the super went to inspect he told me it appear the neighbor had done his own renovation and laid new tile on top of the old and reinstalled the toilet and it was uneven, poorly done. After hounding the property manager to get him to address the leak they sent him a letter telling him he had to remove the second layer of tile and have a plumber repair/reinstall the toilet. It took 3 months of me again hounding the property manager to follow up and finally when a plumber shows up to check he simply flushed the upstairs toilet 20 times and since no water leaked during this flushing the owner refused to pay for plumbing repairs and property manager allowed him to send plumber away without resolving issue. They never notified me the plumber was coming or I would have been home for the visit. The property manager then sent the super into my apartment a few days later, without notifying me beforehand, to replace the damaged drywall. Few weeks later I get nasty letter from property manager saying they repaired my ceiling even though it was a shareholder to shareholder issue they weren't required to do and in the future I should handle it directly with the shareholder above as they are not responsible. Well, it's now the future and my ceiling has new water damage. My upstairs neighbor is clearly a jerk who takes no responsibility for any damages he causes me or others and I will not deal with him any more. He has also caused 2 bedbug infestations in the last year because he would not pay for professional exterminator and the latest financial statement shows a $35,000 increase in exterminator fees due to 6+ months of weekly inspection, treatment for common areas, etc. Due to his refusal to exterminate. (Property manager had to get health department to deem it unsanitary and slap notice on his front door to get him to let exterminator in).
If the property manager is aware that a shareholder is negligently causing water damage to another aren't they responsible to have that shareholder make necessary repairs? Should I contact my homeowner's insurance to repair my bathroom and let them go after his insurance? I really don't want to repair my bathroom yet until I know that there is a way to force the upstairs neighbor to make the necessary repairs. This is the 3rd time I need to replace this same section of wall due to this leak. Doesnt the warranty of habitability apply to co-op associations? My property manager is extremely nasty and basically claims they have no responsibility to address issues between shareholders.
This shareholder is a financial burden and giant PITA to everyone who lives here, doesn't the board have a responsibility to do something about him??
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the lengthy post.