A/C Leaking.......

[Guevara M.]

First off, I am not a expeirenced land lord at all. I have had my rental for 5 years but have never really had a serious problem with it. It's a 1 bedroom, 1 bath condo on the 2nd floor.

Yesterday afternoon my tenant calls me telling me that the lady that lives under her called her to let her know that her ceiling in the utility room was dropping water. So I go over & take a look at my unit that is in the same location just on top of hers & it seems that the a/c is leaking water. I'm sure it is the drain pan. I turned it off so that it wouldn't leak anymore. I have a home warranty so I called them & they are coming out today to fix it. ( I hope.)

My question is as a landloard, what other problems am I looking at? Am I going to have to repair the ceiling of the unit under mine? Any other problems that I might have with this water leak?

[Jon Holdman]

Most likely its a plugged drain on the AC. They have to have a drain to get rid of the condensate. But its an open system, and the amount of water is small, so they will get plugged up with dust and scale over time. An occasional cleaning will eliminate the problem.

Can you tell where the water was leaking out of the unit and where it was going? If this just started and the downstairs resident noticed quickly, it may just dry out and be OK. If its been going on for months, some of the sheetrock may need to be replaced.

Unfortunately, this can result in mold. Whether that's a real problem or not depends on what kind of mold appears. But, its a source of people going crazy, so you may have to do something even if there's not really a problem.

Feel around in your unit and the one below. Are the floors, ceiling, or walls mushy? That would indicate there's a lot of water and its soaked into the sheetrock. If it all seems solid, and if you can locate the path of the water, the damage may be minimal.