My partner and I live in an apartment, and we got contacted by the building management that there is water leak from our unit affecting the unit below, and we should find a plumber to fix it.
We went down to the unit below, but did not see any water leaking. We were told that the water leak was coming from the air con vent (on ceiling), and the person servicing the air con suspected that the water leak was coming from the unit above (i.e. us). When asked when and around what time it leaked, the unit below could not tell us when, but that it occurs once in a while and they see some water puddle below their air con vent when they return home from work.
Since being notified of the issue and since their air conditioning unit was checked and serviced (cleaned, changed faulty capacitor per report given to us), there has not been any water leakage.
The person below referred the issue to building management after the person who serviced their air con suspected the water leak was from above. The building management said this issue does not belong to owners corp/building management, and that we should investigate the issue between ourselves.
We contacted the building's plumber and were told that historically, the owners corp pays for the first hour to identify the issue and to determine who the leak belongs to. However, the owner corp no longer pays for this and wants the residents to pay for it instead.
During the hour, the plumber will stress test (flood test) and check downstairs. The first hour cost ($100) will not include fixing the problem.
The unit below wants us to act now and get the building plumber to investigate despite not having any water leakage since.
We are happy to pay if the water leak belongs to us, but when does a water leak belongs to the building, and when does it belong to us? Who should pay for the initial investigation? and what happens if the source of water leak cannot be identified?
Who should be the one responsible to look for/contacting the plumber?
If this should be paid for by the owners corp, how do you get the owners corp to pay for it given their current stance?
Below poll assumes the unit above will pay for fixing the issue if identified to be the source of water leak (if there is any)… it is only on who should investigate and pay the initial investigation cost.
(No bikies….)
Do you own or rent your unit…