Well mostly.
The leak had in fact gotten worse still and was now leaking into HER unit. And while she couldn't be bothered before, all the sudden she was now turning off her water for all but an hour a day.
I didn't hear back from the code enforcement officers until the 22nd. They came back to the house to let me know that they had indeed been inside Terry's house. But unfortunately couldn't do anything because they couldn't see the source of the leak. And were not allowed to ripe open walls.
I think, great - back to square one. However I did have some hope since the sale of the house was supposedly already done and that they'd soon be gone. Boy was I wrong.
Looked up the court documents a few days after the holidays to see if the bank had in fact repurchased the house, or if someone else had. Neither. The judge ordered the sale date to be pushed back to 2/18. I was LIVID!!!
I went over to Sue's (across the way neighbor) and asked if she had a copy of the HOA bylaws the next day. Because after searching our house for hours - we realized that we never GOT a copy when we moved in. She pulled them out of her desk filling cabinet. She said she never recived any on moving in (over 10 years ago) either. That these we the ones the former owners had left. The were literally from 1982. And have never been updated.
I found nothing really useful in them except that the HOA had the right to maintain the units. And where supposedly supposed to have a key to every one in case of emergencies. Like I donno - a water leak. Apparently our development was originally build as a retirement community. The HOA by-laws still reflected that. Meaning over half were originally bought as "winter homes" for northerners. Snow Birds. So since many of the original owners only lived here 3 months of the year, allowing the HOA to have a key for emergencies seemed like a good idea. But as the years went by things changed. Now it's mostly young family's (like my own) who own them.
I called Becky (the HOA president) the next day. She told me that she knew the date had been pushed back and was going to contact me after New Years to discuss options. Turns out GMAC (bank who owns Terry's mortgage) is under investigation for not taking the proper steps in the foreclosure process. So all of their cases have been put on hold until the investigation is finished.
Of course I don't think this is the case in Terry's situation, since according to the court documents she has been in the foreclosure process since 10/15/2008. Yes - 2008! Woman has been living for FREE for over 2 years. It makes me sick.
Anyway I end up telling Becky this can't wait any longer. The drywall is starting to get soft. And it's ruining both the units. The HOA needed to step in. If for no other reason than to make sure the units didn't receive even more costly damage. That the longer they waited, the more expensive it would become. I think this finally got through to her.
She then told me she understood my frustration. And that Tom (man who lives in the end unit of our building) had actually offered to go in and have a look to see if he could fix it. But that all the sudden Terry would no longer answer her door. Even when it was Tom. **grumbles**
I then asked about the HOA by-laws and what I had read in them. She told me that basically just after we moved in the HOA went through a big restructure. That the former president had been the same one for over 20 years.
And that he had not done ANYTHING to the by-laws standards. There were no financial records, all kinds of crazy stuff. Basically her and a few other people in the neighborhood ended up banning together to get him out. And called the state to do an investigation. But that they were still in the process of cleaning up all the messes he left.
I then sympathized with her. But just to make sure MY point hit home I added that if I didn't see some results within 2 weeks I would be contacting a lawyer. I told her flat out - I don't WANT to get lawyers involved, I just want the problem fixed. But that I feel like I've been pushed into a corner with this. And if they weren't willing to take care of the problem for me, maybe they'd do so for a lawyer.
This got her attention. She told me she would follow up with the other members of the board and call us back on Monday with a resolution.
The very next day (New Years Day) I get woken up at around 8am to pounding on what I thought was our door. I went to our bathroom window to peak out and see if it was one of the neighborhood kids wanting our sons to come out and play. Nope it wasn't. It was the entire HOA board at Terry's door. The VP Kevin then shouted, "TERRY - OPEN THE DOOR!" Nothing. "Terry - you have 15 minutes to open this door or we'll call the police to come break your door down."
She finally opens it. I didn't sand there and listen the the discussion, now I kinda wish I had. But the gist of it was that they were going into her house to find the leak and have it fixed TODAY. She of course caved and agreed to it. I guess one of Tom's family members is a plumber. Took them most of the day, and riping out half of her living room drywall to find it. But they finally found the leak and made the repair.
BUT - it's not over yet. Our drywall still needs replacing. Plus I wanna make sure no mold has grown. I plan to allow a week to go by to see how everything drys up. Then go from there.
I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my mess of a situation. Hopefully something like this never happens to any of you. But if it does, my advice is to get a lot tougher a lot SOONER. It's sad that doing the right thing seems to be a lost art in our society today. I've learned that lesson the hard way.
