Apologies for having taken us down the diversion of whether or not a locked door is a hindrance.
The key point here is that the original problem was the responsibility of the original poster, Caj – the pipes were in their lot and not in the wall and therefore personal property and not common property.Therefore any damage resulting from the failed pipe is the lot owner’s responsibility too.
Caj is understandably aggrieved that the neighbour (and chair of the Owners Corp) could have done more to prevent the problem but didn’t.
That’s as a may be but there is no legally defined duty of care implicit in the role of Chair of the EC. The best you can hope for is to remove them from office at your next AGM.
But there are dozens of circumstances where the neighbour simply failed to make a connection between the problem and possible solutions – panic, too much festive cheer, distraction by visitors and combinations thereof are the likely suspects.
The important thing for Caj to do right now is to remember that we and our neighbours are locked into long-term relationships. Lingering resentment over what could and should have been done is going to taint every day of your life for as long as you and your neighbour are sharing the same space.
The sooner you can get over this, the better for everyone – and the sooner you forget who should have done what and when and deal solely with the practicalities of what happened and it’s consequences, the sooner you’ll get over it.
One other thing – burst washing machine hoses are a common cause of flooding in homes. Turn off your taps after each wash and check your connection hoses every couple of years – they are the weak point in the water delivery system and they will fail, sooner or later, if neglected.