“Help me HOAdvocate, you’re my only hope! I own two townhomes located next to each other. My family and I reside in one of the units, while we purchased the other as an investment property in February after our neighbor passed away. During the buyer’s inspection, we discovered that the roof over the investment property was in poor condition and required replacement. We informed the HOA of the issue after we closed escrow, but they refused to take any action.

Recent rains caused $15,000 in water damage to the ceiling, walls, and wood floors of the investment property. After applying a lot of pressure, the HOA eventually replaced the roof on the whole building, which included our two townhomes plus the third we do not own, but they are unwilling to cover the cost of repairing the damage inside our second unit. We cannot file a claim since we just bought the property this year. Fortunately, we are not renting it out, so we have some time to deal with the issue.

What should we do to persuade the HOA to do the right thing?”

We actually encounter situations like this frequently. While I have not read your CC&Rs, it is common for condo and townhouse CC&Rs to have an exculpatory clause that denies liability for any interior damage, regardless of the cause. To proceed, you should first identify the precise wording of this clause in your CC&Rs. It is worth noting that the typical response of an HOA is to deny any responsibility for liability. Therefore, you may need to put in some effort to pursue your claim.

The good news is that you may have a valid claim for damages based on the HOA’s negligence. You recently purchased the unit, were advised by an expert that there was a problem, notified the HOA of the issue, and they did nothing, resulting in your loss.

To pursue your claim, you should demand an IDR over this dispute and make your case clear. For instance, you could say, “We informed you of the problem but you neglected to address it. Your negligence caused us to suffer losses. If you had repaired or replaced the roof within a reasonable timeframe after we notified you, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

If you don’t want to go through the IDR process, you can file a small claims suit in your county. Keep in mind that the jurisdictional limit for small claims is $10K, so if your repair costs are $15K, you have to be ready to eat the $5K difference.

Either way you go, a good lawsuit to cite is Cohen v. Kite Hill Community Association (1983) 142 Cal.App.3d 642. Cohen provides the law showing that exculpatory clauses in CC&Rs are generally disfavored. A case you might want to watch is Lazarov v. Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club, et al. (L.A. Superior Court No. 22BBCV00669) which was filed about two months ago. It contains some similarities to your situation.