Our neighbor had a flood and the water ruined a portion of our floors. the wood is no longer sold in the US (dont ask, sponsor choice). Our neighbor's insurance already denied our claim (said it was not negligence) and now our homeowners insurance company seems like they are going to not pay the full amount owed because they think the floors are still the original installed and so the condo association insurance may be responsible for any damage.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Our by laws make no mention of this, and i always thought that we owned everything in the unit, which was originally sold about 6 years ago and we are the second owner of the unit

Sadly, floors are a major area of dispute among insurance companies. This happened in my building when a common air conditioning condenser pipe burst and ruined the floors in one unit.

The co-op ByLaws are clear. Co-op is responsible for the original floors, but never responsible for refinishing floors. It's spelled out plain as day in the Lease. Yet, the unit owner's insurance carrier insisted it was the co-op's responsibility and denied the claim.

In the end, the co-op board voted to pay for the floor refinishing just to avoid a potential lawsuit. We could have appealed it up to the State Insurance Commissioner, but ultimately decided it was not worth the time or effort since the floor refinishing cost was $2,000 and the problem that caused the mess was the co-op's fault.

I have some ties to the insurance industry, and confidentally, reps have told me that most of the major HO-6 carriers will deny everything.