Years of water damage In rental unit structure, newly discovered
Rental Property Investor · San Diego · Member since 2020 · 8 posts · 7 votes
Good Afternoon,
Upon replacing a window in one of my rental units, that previously was leaking, severe water damage was noted in the structure was uncovered. It looks like it has been ongoing for a long time (10+ years). Not sure that it goes throughout the unit, but our best guess is that it might. I bought the unit earlier this year and the inspector didn't catch it, I am almost certain that the previous owner knew about it. There is no active roof or window leak currently. I am wondering who has had experience with this and if insurance will generally cover it, and what they will cover? I wanted to get opinions before I notified them. I live in San Diego, so major fixes and rennos are not cheap here.
Taylor
@Taylor Eilers it never rains in California so people don't worry too much about water leaking. There is probably a missing or badly installed flashing at one or more of your window sills. If it has been going on for years it is unlikely your carrier will step up to cover the damage; but call them regardless and get an adjuster out and let them come to that conclusion-or not. Windows and doors facing north and west are the most vulnerable
I used to live in California and it is difficult to worry about leaks too much when it only rains for a couple of months and stops for 9-10. We now live a couple of hours south west of Seattle and we make sure nothing is prone to leaking-ever.
Good Afternoon,
Upon replacing a window in one of my rental units, that previously was leaking, severe water damage was noted in the structure was uncovered. It looks like it has been ongoing for a long time (10+ years). Not sure that it goes throughout the unit, but our best guess is that it might. I bought the unit earlier this year and the inspector didn't catch it, I am almost certain that the previous owner knew about it. There is no active roof or window leak currently. I am wondering who has had experience with this and if insurance will generally cover it, and what they will cover? I wanted to get opinions before I notified them. I live in San Diego, so major fixes and rennos are not cheap here.
Taylor
Its doubtful your insurer will cover the damage. Primarily because the wind-driven rain damage has to be "sudden and accidental". Since you don't know when the damage occurred, don't guess, just state the date you discovered the damage if you make a claim. However, once the adjuster comes out to inspect, they'll likely be able to tell based on the type and extent of the damage if it was due to a recent occurrence or over many events over time. Also, since the window has already been replaced, its going to be even harder to push the claim through. If you felt strongly the damage was recent, I'd have other suggestions should the insurance company deny the claim, but based on what sounds like a high amount of doubt on your part, I wouldn't recommend filing a claim.
I had a similar situation with my first investment property, a triplex in seattle. the south facing (front) wall had noticeable settling around some of the windows. I initially didn't think too much of it and inspectors didn't notice anything, but when having the windows and exterior doors replaced we discovered a lot of rot in the window and door frames. The old single pane aluminim frame windows somebody had drilled holes along the bottom of the frames, which let all the water hitting the windows drain into the wall. Not sure if it was some long ago attempt at sabotage or some kid playing with a drill or what, but damage was done. Also this building was built without any kind of a vapor barrier, just T-111 siding right over the studs. The only vapor barrier is the paint. Cheap construction.
On next turnover of the affected units I had to tear out and replace pretty much all the framing around the affected windows and door frames from the middle of the windows down to the floor joists and rim joist. Fortunately the rot petered out at about the subfloor plywood. I got a bit creative to avoid having to remove the window frames completely, but still had to replace a fair amount of framing, subfloor plywood, and exterior sheathing as well. the most fun part was in the lower unit I had to jack up the whole upper story about 3/4 of an inch to take out most of the settling over the worst window frame. This wasn't quite as hard as it sounds as I had access to some equipment big enough to do it and some major beams in the building were in about the right places to make it easy(ier). That removed most of the settling that had occurred.
I would not expect framing damage to extend much past the wall around and below the windows, but it just depends on how severe the moisture intrusion was and how long it went on, and also the age of the building is a factor as that may affect what types of wood and other materials were used, different kinds of wood handle moisture and rot better than others. If there is framing damage throughout the issue is probably more than just a window leak, the bigger issue in the rest of the unit might be mold, which may not damage the structure but could still require remediation.
Good luck.