I own a condo. I have had water damage 3 times in the last 4 months due to serious maintenance neglect in the common laundry room next door to my unit. I have been told that this room is going to be gutted and redone as a storage closet any day now since October. Still, nothing has been done. I have called the president of the condo association many, many times. I've written letters. I even tried calling the local planning board to see if they could enforce building codes and was told they can't. Besides hiring a lawyer, which I can't afford, my only other plan is to call the department of health -- maybe they can do something because of the mold in their walls and the stagnant water in the broken washers. I am out of ideas does anyone else have any? Please help.

That's a tough one eeyore. What is the President of the association telling you? You mentioned that they are talking about turning it into a storage location, but I would ask when exactly they are planning to do that. I'd suggest that you document everything that has taken place so far and take pictures. Send this information to all board members via certified mail. Ask specifically to have a written response as to what is being done to rectify the situation.

As for contacting a lawyer, I'd recommend against it if possible. Keep in mind that the association is not separate from the owners. The association is made up of all owners. The board is not more responsible for anything than the owners are. Should you decide to sue for anything, you are virtually suing yourself. Any payments that would be made could result in an assessment on all unit owners, so you will have to pay any amounts paid out (or a percentage of it) anyway.

Try to get them to be reasonable. If that means stopping using the laundry room until repairs are done, maybe others will push things along as well. Just make sure that whatever complaints you document, suggest some corrective measures. Don't just complain about things. Unless you have a maintenance company running your association, the people who have volunteered to be on the board are just that volunteers. You may even go a step beyond and have someone come in and give an estimate of what it would cost to make repairs and see if the board would be willing to pay to have this taken care of.

I'm speaking as the treasurer of a condo association - a very small one. Each member of the board receives complaints from other owners (there are only 16 total) who think that we have nothing to do besides to fix problems that people are having. We try to have everyone take a proactive approach to getting things fixed. Hopefully if you approach them in that manner, they will be more receptive.

Good luck!!
(oh - and check your condo docs...what kind of maintenance/repair information is available in there? Site anything you feel is applicable in your letter to the board).