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Topic
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Hope someone can help with this one.
We live on the ground floor of a 12 month old apartment block.
A couple of weeks ago our dish drawer sprung a leak during the night, while not in use, this resulted in considerable damage to our floor. A technician was sent out to look at it and he was insistent that in wasn’t a warranty issue and that the builders had installed the dishwasher incorrectly damaging the hose. I questioned him at length asking if there could be any other possible reason for the damage to the hose and he said no. I told him that we would be taking it up with builder so that we could be reimbursed for the repair & for the replacement of our damaged floorboards. He remained adamant that the installation was the issue and the builder responsible.
So I contact the Strata Manager & builder. The builder responds with “To further progress this matter, we require details from the technician as to why the installation did not meet their requirements, and how the pipe has been damaged as a result.”
I contact the company concerned and ask them to have the technician forward his detailed account of the damage.
All of a sudden he has changed his story and is now saying that rats/mice have probably chewed through the hose! At no pint in the 40 minutes he was at our apartment did he mention rats/mice – not once, he was very insistent it was improper installation.
We have never seen any sign of mice or rats in our apartment, no poo, no bad smells, nothing obviously chewed.
The dish drawer itself sits above another drawer that we keep our lunch bags, glad wrap, foil etc – there has been no sign of chewing or poo etc in this drawer or under or behind it. When he took the dishwasher out he made no mention of any holes, or any signs of rodents.
We have two cats & a dog & they never behave as if they can hear anything gnawing away at the dishwasher hose. They don’t behave as if they can smell any rodent.
Now that the technician has mentioned rats/mice, I feel I do need to inform the Strata Manager just in case we do have a problem underneath the apartments, as there are 12 other ground floor apartments that could have similar problems arise.
If they do find signs of rodents and that explains what happened to our dishwasher hose, would the Owners Corporation be responsible for repairs to our dishwasher & our floor?
Personally, I don’t think it is rodents, but something happened to this dishwasher hose.
Thanks
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Answering your last question first, any suggestion (and I’m not saying you are) that the Owners Corporation would be responsible for the damage, even in the unlikely event that a random rodent had entered your Unit and caused it, is like suggesting that the owner of a next door house would be similarly responsible if we were talking about stand-alone properties.
Secondly as it appears the leak was quite substantial, I assume it was the water inlet hose that caused the problem, where as it’s under mains pressure and usually made of durable rubber with swaged fittings, bursting is quite common.
By all means inform your Strata Manager as it’s likely that all the dishwashers were similarly installed, but I’d be pursuing the Builder to make their own inquiries with the technician, and to inspect the hose themselves.
I have a feeling though that those involved will duck-shove the problem (and you) around, until such time as you tire of chasing them and do what I’d do right now – advise your contents insurer about the burst pipe, of cause unknown, and of a possible claim for the consequent damage.
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