Water Damage

If the leak was in your neighbors apartment, they or their insurance needs to pay for skim coating it. If the leak was in a building system caused it, the building will pay for skim coating. Call your insurance and most likely they will deal with it.

Do not even talk to the super about fixing it. Just inform the building managing agent and the board president.

You also need a industrial strength dehumidifier (cost 150 or so at home depot), and mold spray before the ceiling is patched and skim coated again. As you can probably tell, I have been through it.

Read your by-laws. If they're like all other co-ops', the co-op just has to restore the plaster. Paint, wallpaper, etc. is up to you.

Thanks for your comments. Coop by-laws are like you said, NWT. Leak was from upstairs apartment, Mercer 300, so I'll file a claim and hopefully the outcome will be favorable.

Same thing happened to me last winter. Brand new skim coated renovated apt. Steam pipe cracked in wall of apartment above, which totally wrecked my ceiling and walls in living room and part of the kitchen. The Co-op paid for their guy to come in and fix pipe and plastering and prime. It took 2 months for the walls and ceiling to dry out. I was responsible for the painter, re-skim coating and the paint. My home insurance has a $1,000 deductible, and my expenses ended up costing me $1,300, so it didn't seem worth the trouble to file a claim and risking higher rates.

The insurance of your upstairs apartment will pay for it. They did in my case.

If you have Chubb they will ask you get it fixed and bill them. They will take it from there.

Had a similar problem where the foyer and bathroom were subjected to water damage from the apartment above. My insurance covered it and went to the insurance company of the upstairs owner for reimbursement.

I had a similar problem , filed with my insurance company. They paid but went after the upstairs neighbors insurance and got reimbursed. My rate did not go up

Thanks for the suggestion, Mercer, Jelj and kmbroker about putting it on upstairs apartment insurance. I assumed since the bldg paid for the damage and the by-laws tell us we are responsible for the cosmetic side I was out of luck. But maybe not. I shall pursue. Thanks.

So far not so good. Our insurance deductable is 2000. The place recommended by my insurance came back with an estimate of 1700 for the job which did not include skim coating. When I pointed this out, they did a new estimate that included skim coating which came in at 1900 ($200 for skim coating?). They said they would not approach the upsatairs insurance for a claim that would be less than the deductable. I asked the building manager for the contact info for the apartment above. His response was that this was a building repair so this is essentialy between me and the building and my insurance. Even though the water came from the toilet in the above apartment. Does this make any sense?

The building manager responded that It was the original lead bend underneath the toilet, not the toilet itself, so this would be on the building.

Meaning it would be on me...:(

rc, Just let your insurance deal with it. Tell them that it is leak from the upstairs toilet. They will call building manager and figure out the upstairs address and insurance.

@300 Mercer: My insurance said it won't deal with an amount less than the deductable, which this is.