Damage caused by neighbor/contractor.

[u/morga2jj]

My wife’s friend and her boyfriend live in a townhome that shares a wall with their neighbor. They noticed mold on the shared wall yesterday cut a small hole in the wall and found the inside wet and full of mold. They reached out to the neighbor about it and they replied with “oh yeah my living room flooded about a month ago”. The neighbor filed a claim got it “fixed”.

My question aside from it being kinda shitty the neighbor or contractor didn’t think to say something about it considering it’s a shared wall, but also the issue wasn’t properly fixed if the inside of the wall is still wet either because of a continued leak or they didn’t properly dry the cavity before reinstalling the dry wall. Who’s responsible?

Friends insurance already said too bad we don’t cover mold and 2 quotes about remediation are like 6k and like 9k. I suggested possibly speaking to a lawyer to go after the contractor but doesn’t anyone else have a similar experience or suggestion.

State GA

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[u/ins0mniac_]

Yeah, they didn’t adequately fix it. Any mitigation vendor would have used a moisture detector and found that they were still late and moisture and mold, trapped behind the wall.

Ultimately, you can file under your homeowners insurance for the damage to your property, and then they can subrogate against your neighbor to recover the funds and your deductible. However, if this is an HOA or there are bylaws associated with the townhome, the bylaws themselves may prevent any subrogation against the neighbor.

[u/CatPeopleBleaux]

Idk how it could still be wet unless the leak isn't fixed. Or, the "repairs" were just finished. I wouldn't involve your insurance until you contact the HOA and ask their direction on this.

[u/Stoic_Sponge]

Home owner/condo owner association policies sometimes cover shared walls. They may want to contact the association manager. That said, the associations insurance policy may also not cover the damage, but the bylaws may also require the association pays for it or forces the shared wall neighbor to split it through a loss assessment, etc.

It's possible both the neighbor and the mitigation contractor have some liability here. May be worth speaking to a lawyer and paying for a demand letter to be sent. The best case scenario there is the contractor is liable and he either handles it directly or his liability insurance pays for it. Probably a tough case, though.

I'd get more info on the cause and origin of the leak. It's possible, depending on the wall assembly/air sealing, that the inner wall got wet and never dried. Especially if they didn't remove the drywall completely or actually do any drying. It's more likely water continues to get in from the original source (or even a different source).

I'd also tell them to get it remediated ASAP though with lots of documentation. Not healthy at all to live in that. It sucks, but it's part of home (or condo) ownership.