Water Damage to Ceilings, Walls, Doors, and Floors

There's nothing I'd like better than to be able to tell a more positive story here.

My husband came home on July 23, 2003, and discovered unit 409 flooded upstairs and downstairs, from our main floor ceiling to the cement floor in our garage. This was from water escaping from a Crane toilet tank that burst in unit 510 above us. To this day we do not know how long the water ran - I was out of town visiting my mother in Penticton, my husband was away also. Either nobody knew, or if they knew, they did not tell us. We do know that as soon as my husband returned home and discovered it he phoned and reported it as an emergency to our strata management company, owned by Garth Cambrey.

Within the next week or so the Crane toilet tank in unit 227 burst as well, and the difference in the way the repairs were treated was shocking.The water damage in unit 227 was promptly repaired on the basis of full replacement value at a cost of about $25k, but the strata delayed completion of its repairs to Unit 409's much more severe water damaged building structure and fixtures until the time for an insurance claim expired, leaving our strata lot with unrepaired water damage since 2003.

This disparity fits a pattern of significantly unfair allocations and oppressive actions against the owners of unit 409 under Garth Cambrey's strata management company, particularly continuing violations of bylaw 4, and s.36, s.71, s.72, and s.76 of the Strata Property Act in regard to access to records, insured water damage, months of injury from sewer gas, and weekly deliveries of slugs and root weevils. Prolonged oppression has caused damage to us physically, emotionally, socially and financially.

I don't think that all this was the due to the good people who volunteer on council. The evidence points more toward strata management acting in conflict to support a corrupt few. I am not aware of any evidence, in the minutes or otherwise, that management ever gave the members of council a chance to vote on delaying or denying repairs to Unit 409 at the time of loss or pursuant to a s.159 3/4 vote at a general meeting not to repair or replace our damaged property.

Instead of making an insurance claim and distributing the benefits as required by law, it took Stratawest months to have superficial repairs done, and at no time did an insurance adjuster, strata manager, or member of council visit our unit to investigate the type and amount of loss or compare the scope and standard of repairs in Unit 409 to those in Unit 227.

Perhaps a picture is, as they say, worth a thousand words. In any case, this blog includes both. Hopefully the viewer will keep in mind that Unit 409's Building 7 had a 20-year structural warranty and for approximately 15 years we had no structural complaints - until the toilet tank broke in the unit upstairs. Before that our walls, floors and doors all seemed fine as far as we could see, and since then two of the strata's own engineers, who viewed the drywall cracks, water stains, sinking floors, damaged carpet, and warped doors in our unit, found the damage consistent with a flood from above.

More extensive photos of the unrepaired damage to Unit 409 are posted in other blogs, but I think that the following photos speak for themselves with respect to significantly unfair treatment of Unit 409 concerning structural issues and supposedly insured water damage.

Photos 1, 2, & 3:
These photos show the damage to our doors













Crooked at the top - and at the bottom













and warped sideways

















Our doors became so warped and crooked that they were no longer fit for the purpose for which they were intended. They stick or swing shut - or won't stay latched, locked, or closed - so locks are useless.

Photos 4 and 5:
Using the suitcase as a barrier to stop cat from pushing bedroom door open creates an awkward, unsightly tripping hazard.











Interior door locks stopped working after the flood warped the doors so badly we could no longer rely on the doors to stay latched. We lost privacy protection - and have never since felt comfortable giving our neighbours a key to water our house plants while on vacation or to provide access to contractors.

This door stopper keeps our bathroom door from swinging shut and blocking off the access to cat litter box.










Photos 6, 7, and 8:




The angle at which this lamp is standing helps illustrate how our floor warped and sunk after the flood










including a circular area














above this supporting pillar in our garage below

Strata records from Sayers Engineering Limited dated January 19, 1989, advise that the concrete used in the columns in the lower unit’s garages appears to be the mix that is used for topping on the wood floor system in the upper units, which may be water soluble.


In any event, after the flood the floor above sunk in a distinctively circular pattern above this column.

We do not think that the flood caused the column to shift out of plumb; we think that the water degraded the column's cement.

Photos 9 to 14:
409's hallway was so warped by the flood that the sliding doors had to be repositioned in order to close - after which the plastic wheel casings broke.

The hall wall split also - at the top on the inside - and at the bottom on the outside. Before the flood our hallway doors slid perfectly, and our walls were not cracked and split.













This photo is of the crack at the top on the inside of our hall closet.



















This photo is of the split at the bottom on the outside of our hall closet. To left of the spit the pencil marks made before and after the drying process can still be seen.

The original position of the track for the sliding doors was pencilled onto the wall by a restoration worker before he removed the doors, track, and carpets.

After moisture testing indicated that our walls were dry our carpets were relaid, and the track was reinstalled in line with those marks and the doors were rehung. The result was so crooked that the doors could not slide at all.

The worker took the doors off again, erased the marks, hung a plumb line, pencilled in new marks, and moved the track to match up to his new pencil marks. The faint residue of his original marks still shows (as do the water marks) alongside the unerased new marks that he pencilled in for the new position of the track, showing how significant the difference was.

The vertical splits that developed in the wall soon afterward, which is visible to the right of the pencil marks.

This sliding door from our hall closet was lying on the floor with broken wheel casings for years until we finally replaced its wheels ourselves.














The carpet seam between our dining room and main hallway was bumpy after the carpet was removed for drying and cleaning and then relaid, and then the seam collapsed forming an indented line. The horizontal shadow about halfway across the photo below is the indented area. Although it did not photograph very well, in contrast to replacement value repairs, please consider the high profile central location of this seam. It is one of the first things seen by visitors entering our home.














This shows the wear pattern on our bedroom carpet from the warped doors and buckled floors.













The unrepaired structural damage to our floors creates indirect problems as well - we have 3 Crane toilets that are in serious need of replacement, but we feel trapped in limbo. It seems unreasonably wasteful to us to spend money to install new toilets when our floor coverings need replacement - and we are unable to install new flooring over a sinking subfloor and damaged substrate.

We do not know why all of this went so wrong - but we do know some things:

• From about 2000 to 2006 unit 409 was repeatedly damaged by water escaping from unit 510 above. Water came pouring through the light fixture in the hall and filled buckets; time and time again we came home on holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to find our sinks overflowed and the floor of our kitchen and family room a lake of filthy water filled with garborator contents and drain cleaner. When we scooped this water into buckets and emptied them off our deck the soil was poisoned by their drain cleaner, which killed the plants below our deck. Then unit 510's Crane toilet tank burst and flooded our unit while it was unoccupied.
• During the same time as these floods the strata corporation accounting records show that the owner of unit 510 was paid $825 by the strata corporation for do-it-yourself floor leveling - and that another invoice also for more than $800 for additional floor leveling compound was submitted to the strata corporation by the owners of unit 510 - which brings the total cost for floor levelling compound on that one level alone to over $1,600 in the dollars of the time.

15, 16, and 17




















We are not construction experts - so we don't know if that much floor leveling compound results in a structurally viable "repair", or a "hidden defect", but, either way, we think the replacement floor in unit 510  is very nice looking.


We do not, however, think that our sinking ceiling following the added weight from the large amount of flooring compound used, when replacing the same floors time and time again, is very nice.

• We are not mathematicians - nevertheless we realize that water damage from a Crane toilet tank bursting in an upper unit and flooding that upper unit's floors - as well as 2 levels of ceilings, walls, doors, and floors in the lower unit below - would logically exceed any damage from a Crane toilet tank bursting in a lower unit and flooding one unit alone.
• Although the strata corporation insurance investigator did not attend our unit, we think it would be obvious that full replacement repairs of all the water damage to 3 floors in both Unit 510 and Unit 409, as well as to the walls, doors, and ceilings on 2 levels in Unit 409, plus hearing protection and alternate accommodation during the drying period would have to exceed the $5,000 insurance deductible paid for the repairs to Unit 227.
• Unit 227 received prompt full replacement repairs for water damage that would, on a balance of probabilities be less than the water damage to Unit 409, yet nearly 6 years after Unit 227 was fully repaired Unit 409 still has unrepaired water damage.
• Then the strata manager spent $5,885 on unit 518's fireplace on July 15, 2005, without any corresponding decision by council being reported to the owners in the minutes.

One of the strata corporation's lawyers, Adrienne Murray, claims that a strata corporation may not make decisions that prefer or favour the interests of one particular owner at the expense of others, and Al Macleod claimed over and over that there are people who get on council for their own self-interests, and that it is not allowed. Ms. Murray and Mr. Macleod appear to be blind to unfair allocation of funds, not just for exclusive use of common property, but approximately $6,000 to repair a broken tile on this fireplace for Mr. Macleod, leaving our unit with unrepaired supposedly insured damage, which seems to be just one of the many special interest expenditures that favour the self-interest of particular councilors at the expense of other owners.














The money we paid the strata corporation for insurance protection, patio repairs, and landscaping has been unfairly allocated to the benefit of others at our expense. Making it worse, I have been personally threatened, falsely accused, harassed, defamed, and injured physically and emotionally by strata corporation agents retaliating against my complaints.

After trying without success for over 5 years to access the repairs and insurance benefits that we paid our strata fees for we can't figure out what is going on here.

We have been given the run around for years, and my requests for a copy of the insurance cover have been denied on the grounds of it being no longer in the records. Strata management failed to make the insurance claim within the 1-year time limit or to make the corresponding building repairs. Strata corporation agents have repeatedly called my requests for records and repairs "harassment".

The last post in this blog outlines a 5-year chronological summary of events arising from the water damage to unit 409 from the toilet tank that burst in unit 510. Hopefully, owners who read it will have the ability to determine for themselves what harassment is.

The point of this blog is to motivate the strata corporation to
honour its ongoing obligation to
REPAIR OUR WATER DAMAGED DOORS, WALLS AND FLOORS

.

We are SICK of what's going on

.

If any other owners are
NOT PROUD
to see the facts set out in this blog then
.

PLEASE VOTE

to change the situation at a meeting