UPDATE: now with photos
Monday.
It rained. I had been praying for rain for weeks. Yay!
Got call from kick-ass new neighbors who live in my building. From their honeymoon. House sitter is freaking, there’s a leak in their bedroom, they say. Will I go check on things? Of course. Paint is melting off all the way down to the middle floor.
Just to be safe, check for leaks in my condo. Sure enough.
Call the president of our home owners association. Who is also the builder. Who is also the seller. Who is also the person who employed the people who last did work on the roof. No response.
No response.
Still no response.
Tuesday
Chaos, mayhem, panic. Phone calls, emails, no response.
No response.
Still no response.
Can’t get any sort of work done.
Call “emergency” line provided on our property manager’s website.
AWESOME guy comes out, sweeps the roof off, takes photos, gives me the scoop.
The last people to touch the roof installed vents. Which required holes. Which were not sealed. Or flashed or whatever they call it.
But that’s not all.
The gutters and drainage is the root of the problem. The water needs a place to go.
The roof slants toward my unit (I’m on the end).
The entirety of the roof’s surface, several thousand square feet, now has a path for water to drain off.
In my condo.
NEATO.
Wednesday.
Wake up, the entire ceiling has fallen off.
Hole in roof. No ceiling. No response. Are you smelling that this is not a good situation?
Get my father involved, he has experience with such things.
Get my real estate agent and his broker involved, they have weight and expertise.
They all tell me to get an attorney.
Begin shopping for attorneys.
Chaos, mayhem, phone calls, panic, emails, gah!
Trying not to be emotional. *I will handle this crisis with grace. I will handle this crisis with grace. I will handle this ...*
One attorney calls me back, we set up an appointment for Monday. Sounds like I have a case.
Thursday
Wait, wait, wait.
Finally the guys who “broke it” came to take a look. Said they’ll be back to seal up the hole.
Thursday 8:30pm
They said they sealed it up.
Friday
I am back to work today. It’s the most gorgeous day of the year so far, and I just bought a truckload of flowers and spent some time in the dirt. Flowers and dirt in your fingernails are good for the soul.
I can’t control what I can’t control, but I do intend to invest in an attorney and let him handle this from here on out. I am not in a vindictive or angry sort of mood, but I do think that people that need to make things right just do. And I’m not going to let somebody hurt me again in life—fuck me over so they can profit and not shed a single tear about it. Sometimes it’s just better to fight. Without emotion or anger, but just because it’s right.

