Article Courtesy of Local 10 News

By Judy Reich

Published April 21, 2016

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. - When a South Florida widow felt overwhelmed with mold damage caused by a leak from a neighbor's condo unit she called Local 10 News consumer investigative reporter Christina Vazquez for help.
 

"It's in every cabinet, also in the bottom one," Inge D'Angelo said as she showed photos of mold caused by water that damaged her kitchen cabinets. She said the damage was caused by a leak in the apartment directly above hers. When maintenance workers for the condo entered that unit earlier this year they found that the refrigerator water line was leaking. They turned it off, but D'Angelo was left with the damage.

"This is the way I have to live," D'Angelo said as she pointed to her kitchen goods and dishes scattered throughout her living room. "It's not my fault. Nobody took care of the apartment."

Her upstairs neighbor passed away and now the apartment is bank owned. The water seeped undetected through the walls down into D'Angelo's kitchen. She said she didn't notice it until she was having a new dishwasher installed.

"The technician had to go underneath to connect (the dishwasher) right so he said, 'Ma'am, it's wet there,'" D'Angelo said.

D'Angelo doesn't have homeowner's insurance and figuring out who to file a claim with and how became a mystery to her. That’s when she called Christina for help.

"It will be thousands of dollars and I don't have it," D'Angelo said.

"The most important thing you need to do is act," Jeffrey Wank said.

Wank is an attorney for Kelley Kronenberg specializing in first property insurance coverage. He said it's important to determine who is responsible for the damages.

"In the event you don't have insurance, you're going to look to hold somebody else responsible. For condo associations it could vary," Wank said.

D'Angelo's case was tricky. Her neighbor's mortgage was sold to different banks after her death.

"You would want to contact the bank to find out if they have insurance," Wank said.

Wank tells Local 10 News that condo associations are often responsible for repairing the walls.

The Call Christina team spent days tracking down the insurance companies representing the bank and the condo association. Now both tell us they are working to help D'Angelo solve the issue.

Wank said there is an important lesson for consumers.

"Have insurance, cover yourself, protect yourself and make sure in the event of the loss, the first thing you do is contact your own insurance company to be able to put them on notice so they can conduct an investigation themselves for the work that needs to be done," Wank said.