Plumbing expenses from upstairs bathroom water leaks

Hi guys,

I have had water leaking from the upstairs bathroom for the second time this year, the first time was in January and caused damage to my bathroom ceiling which was eventually (6 months later) repaired through upstairs insurance. Now a few weeks back (October) it has happened again which has not damaged the ceiling but has caused enough concern for the tenants to call the emergency plumber.

My PM has billed me for the cost (without my consent) and i have told them to forward it to the upstairs owner. The PM for this owner has refused reimbursement saying that i acted alone and they also had the leak inspected by a different plumber.

The body corporate has been less than helpful and the PM have already billed me for it so they have no motivation to have it passed on except for goodwill. I have forwarded the bill to the owner with no response yet. Where do i go now and is it worth it for the $150 bill? what happens if it happens again? i can't keep having tenants call an emergency plumber for the upstairs unit at my cost!


Property is located in Brisbane

Thanks for the responses,

Stuart

 

That happened to me as well except the bill was larger
In the end the BC said they would pass the claim to the insurance company
So my $430 bill was paid less the excess ...yes i got nothing
I decided against getting a legal opinion
But keen to know the correct treatment

 

$150 is nothing just pay it and move on.

but you need to determine what the root cause of the issue. Is it due to grey water (waste water, water that has been used, leaking from waste pipe, or upstairs bathroom doesn't have a drain and they have bath overflow? wet and wild party in their bathroom?) or is it from water supply (clean water), e.g. from a cracked pipe. It is possible the water can come from within the walls of water supply from your upstairs property leaking into your ceiling.

also for PMs normally, they have a "spending limit" the whole reason you hire a PM is to save time right. they won't be bugging you for every little thing so there's a spending limit and under $500 is considered normal. So if you're not happy with this limit you will need to talk with your PM and let them know at what threshold you want them to get approval to spend the money collected (rent).

 

My leak was grey water
But yes pay the bill and move on
We have better things to do with our time

 

Agreed the cause of the leak needs to be determined, it may not be worth taking it further this time however as this is already the second time it has happened and if it happens again then certainly something needs to be done I would think.

If the cause is Body Corp related due to a cracked pipe for example and you have no joy following up with them, there is actually a Body Corp dispute resolution service in Brisbane that mediate matters like this all the time. Here is the link if you wanted to have a look!

Conciliation for body corporate disputes | Your rights, crime and the law | Queensland Government

All the best

Jodi

 

Thanks Jodi,

That's correct for a second time occurrence $150 may not seem like much but I do not want to create the expectation with the owner upstairs that I will repair their broken water pipes as it is their expense to keep their property maintained.

It is either greywater from the bath or freshwater from the plumbing. The first leak was the reason they renovated the bathroom, my guess is the plumber did a dodgy job and came back for free, that's why their PM doesn't want to foot my bill to stop the leak from underneath.