#339-O, Mancuso v. Spring Lake Condominium Association (January 10, 1997) (Panel: Bromberg, Auvil, Blomberg)

The condominium owner (CO) requested that the Commission order her condominium association (CA) to pay her for losses she suffered when her unit was damaged by a flood from another unit in the same building.

The evidence at the hearing showed that the CO suffered damages of $3588 when water from another unit overflowed into hers.  The CA filed a claim with its master insurance carrier, which applied its deductible of $2500 to the claim and paid the CA (but not the CO) only $1088.  The parties agreed that the damages suffered were of the type covered by the master policy.  The CO did not file a claim with her own homeowner's insurance company.  This CA was established in 1973 and predates the Maryland Condominium Act.

The panel ruled that although Section 11-114 of the Maryland Condominium Act required condominiums to cover the cost of repairs in a case like this as a common expense (to the extent that they weren't covered by insurance), this particular condominium was exempt from that law by Section 11-142 of the Condominium Act, because its governing documents provided for a different liability, by making the unit owner solely responsible for repairs to her own unit.  Section 11-142 exempts from 11-114 those condominiums established before 1982.

The hearing panel ordered that the CA had no obligation to pay to the CO more than the $1088 it had actually received from its insurer, and ordered the CA to turn that amount over to her.