Hurricane Sandy: Who Is Responsible For Clean-up?

Hurricane Sandy hit Ohio in late October 2012 and left many Associations with a mess to clean up. That mess may include major repairs to damage caused to common elements, such as roofs, chimneys, gutters, windows, and landscaping. The maintenance, repair, and replacement of common elements is typically the responsibility of the Association, pursuant to each Association’s specific governing documents.

Many owners, however, have been asking that the Association make repairs to damage in the interior of units resulting from the storm. The maintenance, repair, and replacement of the interior of a unit is typically the responsibility of the owner pursuant to each Association’s specific governing documents.

The exception to this allocation of responsibility is when the Association causes the damage to a unit.

In that case, the Association would be responsible for such repairs.

Most governing documents include provisions that limit the Association’s responsibility for repair to the interior of a unit only to situations where the Association is negligent and caused the damage due to a lack of repair to a problem that the Association had prior knowledge of. Here are examples of when this exception may apply:

-After a complete roof replacement on a building, an owner for the first time informs the Board that water is leaking through to his or her drywall. In this case, it is the Association’s responsibility to have the roof examined and, if needed, repaired. However, it is the owner’s responsibility for the interior repair costs. Because the Association had no prior know-ledge of any roof problems and because there was no reason to suspect any problem, the Association did not cause the leak and therefore it is only responsible for the repair to the common elements and not to the unit.

-A 25 year-old roof is on a building. Over the past 3 years, the Board has received dozens of complaints from owners documenting leaks and other problems directly caused by the roof. The Board failed to take any steps to replace or otherwise repair the roof. With this knowledge, when an owner presents a claim for repair of his or her unit because the drywall is bubbling as a result of the roof leaking, the Association must not only have the roof examined and, if needed, repaired, but it must also make the necessary repairs to the interior unit.

When Hurricane Sandy blew through in October it brought with it high winds that are not typical of the Northeast Ohio area. If Hurricane Sandy, and not the Association, caused damage to units, the typical allocation of responsibility remains: the Association is responsible to fix the common elements and the owners are responsible to fix the interior of his or her unit. It may have been unreasonable to expect an Associa-tion to have known that hurricane-force winds and rain would cause the damage it did.

When disaster strikes, what should you do? Here are a few tips:

-Call the Association’s insurance agent to notify them of the damage;

-If there is a unit owner issue, have the owner notify their insurance company of the damage;

-If it is safe to do so, document the damage with photographs or video;

-If the damage is severe, ensure that any gas is shut off, damage power lines are roped off, and if any building is structurally un-stable, that no one except emergency personnel is permitted to enter; and

For true emergencies, first call 911, and ensure that people are safe before property.

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