A few days ago, I was eating a quick dinner while watching TV before going for a quick run outside. All of a sudden I heard something out of the ordinary, and thought maybe my dryer was squealing or the AC was malfunctioning. So I turn the TV to mute and hear sirens/beeping/alarms upstairs. Needless to say, I didn't go upstairs to check it out. I went outside instead to call the fire department. (I remember my fire safety, I knew that 2 hour class I had to take for work would come in handy some day...) As it turns out, the sirens in my entire building were going off, and after deciding it probably wasn't my place that was on fire, I went inside to check for sure. Nothing was wrong with the house, no smoke, no fire. The upstairs alarms were going off (apparently we have smoke detectors downstairs but no fire alarms) so I grabbed my laptop just in case, and left the building.
Soon after, the fire department arrives, and it turns out a sprinkler in the unit next to me malfunctioned and flooded the entire condo. Water everywhere: rushing through the front doors, cascading from the vents, pretty much doing everything you wouldn't want to happen unless there were a real threat. There was no fire, like I said it was a malfunction. The fire department stopped the flooding after within 15-30 minutes but not before my neighbor's place was totally ruined by water damage. Needless to say, little survived unscathed.
The next day, the home owner's association had some damage control people come to look at what happened. The flooding was so severe that it not only covered the condo, but leaked through to the adjacent stairwell, and finally, into my kitchen baseboards. We've had flooding issues before in the kitchen. In fact, every time it rains, the kitchen gets wet and smelly. Granted, it doesn't rain often in Arizona, but it rains enough to be an inconvenience when you know you're going to have to clean it up.
This situation raises a few questions:
1) Who designed this building? A lot of people have similar problems. (Well, not with the faulty sprinkler, but with flooding) Whoever thought building an awning over the balcony thus forcing rain into my house was not thinking.
2) In this market, what do you do with a water-damaged condo that can't be lived in? If my neighbor sells, I'm sure he'll take a huge loss. I can't imagine how stressed he must be dealing with this.
3) Who is responsible? The fire department said the sprinkler was faulty, so it wasn't my neighbor's fault. Does the HOA pay for the damage? Insurance? I think I need an expert in tort law.
All I can say is I'm grateful it wasn't my place.
