Water Drama

Living in a townhome or condo sucks for many reasons. The reasons I had before last night were pretty understandable: no private backyard, shared walls, a crappy home owner's association that continues to raise fees but doesn't actually *fix* anything. Well, two nights ago I noticed water on the kitchen floor seeping from the baseboard, and last night I have developed a new reason for wanting to move out of the townhome and into a "real" house: sharing a common wall with a renting tenant that doesn't fix anything.

I was a renter for many years and I feel I was rather conscientious. I always took good care of my home (even if it was a run-down hovel near the beach) and we fixed little things (drawers, toilets, etc) as they needed fixing. I know that not all renters are inherently bad. But the ones next door...I don't know if the problem is that they don't call the owner to fix things or the the owner is negligent, but I suspect it is the former.

I noticed the water Tuesday night. Jay checked under the sink (since the water was seeping out just below the sink cupboard) and it was dry. He checked all around the various items that require plumbing: dishwasher, washing machine, water heater, all dry. So he goes next door. The common wall has our kitchen and laundry room and on their side a half bath and their laundry room. They have probably three times as much water standing in their place, and don't seem in a particular hurry to do anything about it. We mop it up on our side, they mop it up on their side, and we decide to wait a day to see if it comes back/determine where the leak is originating. Yesterday morning there was no water; last night, there was a small lake covering our entire kitchen. Thank goodness we have real tile and not linoleum. I love our tile; it was my favorite thing when we bought the place. But I digress. Jay arrived home first since I had to pick up Luke at preschool, and he noticed the water because he saw Abby (one of the kittens) go sliding and splashing across the kitchen.

So, he goes to see the woman that is on the HOA board to find out what to do since it looks like a problem in the wall between the units. She says it's not the HOA's problem (we later find out this is true because each unit has its own water lines coming from the garage, but I'll get to that). We call the plumber who is, thankfully, very familiar with these townhomes, having lived in one himself years ago. Since Jay called the plumber (had we waited on the next door neighbor it never would have happened), they came to our place first. He looked around and listened to the pipes and spent maybe three minutes there and then went next door. The leak was in their upstairs bathroom piping somewhere. The neighbor's water main is stuck so they shut off water to the whole building (we had to deal with a pissed off neighbor later because they didn't tell anyone they were turning off the water, they just did it). Finally it is repaired and we have water again a couple hours later.

There are a few things that really bother me about this incident but the biggest one is this: we leave in two days for Myrtle Beach. It was obvious that the neighbors weren't going to call their landlord or a plumber or do anything about it. What if this had happened while we were gone?! Our whole kitchen would have been ruined (except the beautiful tile). Thankfully we have someone house-sitting for us since we have the kittens, but I would have hated for her to have to deal with that.

So I have GOT to really work hard to pay off our bills so we can move before something else happens in that place. This isn't the first incident with the neighbors. Their kids are out of control; I've come home from work to find them *on our roof* throwing basketballs at each other. There is no supervision. I cannot wait for the day that we get to move to a real house and leave the townhome/condo drama behind. Then if there is a problem it is OUR problem and we can deal with it promptly and correctly.