AARP Online Community and Discussion Forums - Condo maintenance expense

mh8441 · ‎11-08-2025

I live in a condo complex with 3 stories and a subterranean garage where the main drain lines are located. I am on the 1st floor and the drain for 6 units are connected to vertical drain underneath my unit in the garage. Whenever one of these units used their kitchen drain, it flooded the drain pipes under my sink.

I contacted the management company at 7:00 am and asked him of any known problems, what it could be and who to contact via email so I could attach a video. He never got back to me.

I called the plumber who repiped my drain when I got new kitchen cabinets to see what the problem was. He told me the common drainpipe had to be descaled but he couldn't do it from my unit. He had to remove the cap from the drainpipe and do it from the garage. He also told me it had to be hydro jetted. Which the complete garage had been done the week prior (and probably contributed to my problems)

The management company still hadn't got back to me (mind you one time in didn't get back to me for 2 days when the common shower line leaked and asked me if I wanted my plumber who was replacing my shower assembly to fix it and he would reimburse me. My guy said no he didn't want the responsibility for a common pipes.

I sent another email to the management company attaching pictures and the cost of everything.

He still didn't get back to me.

I sent an email at 12:00 pm saying the line was descaled and hydro jetted.

He finally got back to me after that saying only the horizontal drainpipes were hydro jetted and the verticals are not. Days later he told me he was not going to reimburse me because I didn't call the emergency phone and I didn't use a specified plumber but asked for my plumbers w-9, itemized bill , certificate of insurance and asked me if I paid or not.

Do I have any legal recourse? I have heard of possibly getting a penalty or something but complete non payment for the cost of maintenance which is directly the result of not having a maintenance plan for a common vertical drainpipe that caused my unit to flood is directly their responsibility.