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Mystery solved
A few weeks ago I was writing about some weird water seepage problem in my living room and my trying hard to track the source of the leak in vain.
Well since that post, the wall started growing more crystals, a second wet patch appeared on the bottom of the wall, the ceiling on the balcony started dripping filling about 3 glasses of water in 24 hours, green fungus appeared in some of the wet spot, and 2 weeks ago it was totally unexplained wet patches right smack in the middle of my living room’s ceiling that made their debut, a few days of observing them made me think that my first thought of the whole issue being related to the use of an AC came back to the top of my mind because said wet patches would start spreading in the evening and disappear during the morning to only re-appear the next evening.
To summarize the saga, DH did go to our upstairs neighbours when the whole problem started to be told that they hardly ever used the AC and that we should just bear with the water seepage since the building is plagued with these in the bathroom…never mind that our leak is in a wall that has no pipes in the living room. Since DH found no evidence of any leak upstairs he asked the society manager to do his bit and check things, which he whined about saying that he was fed up hearing the same story about all the residents. At this point we of course resigned ourselves to the fact our living room wall would look like a science experiment, but wanted to make sure that our landlord at least was kept in the loop and sent pictures of the damage to him, with him replying he would escalate it with the society manager. Weeks passed, and the ceiling blotches appeared, which I documented again in pictures, and today I got a visit from the society manager and the plumber to check the extent of the damage. They both agreed that it had to come from upstairs so they asked me to accompany them to the flat above mine. I had a odd vibe that it would not go to well, so I stayed behind them letting them take the blow, and I was right, an old auntie barked in their face to please come the next morning as she didn’t want us in, the manager fortunately seemed used to that kind of resistance and informed her that he was just investigating a leak issue and wanted to check if they were having signs of seepage in their living room in an effort to properly trace the source of the leak, it seemed to have worked, they inspected the kitchen and living room in peace, until the younger lady, probably the daughter or daughter in law of the auntie in question started lecturing me aggressively on how it was a perpetual issue in the building and to stop bothering about it and not disturb them…at this point I had been staying silently in the background, wishing I was not there while the two men carried their inspection and asked to have access to the “flower bed” outside the balcony to check their split AC connection as they seemed to have found something suspicious with it, at first the lady tried to refuse to give them the key that shuts their window, but gave up quickly.
By then I had time to have a very good look at the flat: completely redone, clad in expensive marble, plaster of Paris moulding everywhere to make it look like a palace, balcony taken inside the flat, new non standard sliding windows…and ta-da the infamous split AC unit that they swore to DH’s face was never used on at full blast in a living room nobody was using until we arrived. The plumber came back inside informing the auntie that their split AC had no condensation draining pipe peaking outside the external wall as it should. She dismissed it saying that it could not be an AC damaging the walls and asked them to leave and do their job fixing the rooftop, they insisted she bring it up with her son, and she agreed, though seriously it sounded like a fake agreement to me. Now while I do not doubt the roof might need a check up, the building has 7 floors, and I live on the 3rd, and I am the only one with any water seepage in the living room in that row, a seepage so bad that water drips in a bucket in such substantial amount I can empty it daily, something that if the damage was on the roof would have affected all the other residents but has affected only me.
seeing that the lady was going to bite the manager and the plumber left with me and offered to give me a better explanation out of earshot from the bullies in my own flat.
So it seems that when my lovely upstairs neighbour installed their split AC they didn’t install a draining pipe to carry the typical condensation water out, while all people usually have a green pipe following the power line to carry such water in the storm water drain, theirs have no sign of it even existing, meaning that their AC has been draining water directly in the wall against which the unit is fixed to the point of soaking the whole wall wet and finding it’s way through the concrete natural cracks all the way to my place where the water found an escape considering I am the proud owner of typical rental flat cheap painted flats that let moisture seep out, while they clad theirs in mouldings, and vinyl paint.
At this point the society manager told me that as a tenant I don’t have much weight against them so he advised me to bring the result of the investigation with my landlord so he could in turn lodge a formal complaint with the cooperative and that we will have to see where it goes from there.
Frankly I have no hope at all of the problem getting solved, the neighbours are in aggressive denial mode, and unless someone forces their way in and break their wall and force them to install their AC properly, my flat will continue dripping away during the hot season as it seems they need the AC in there almost 24/7 even on a day like today which was a cool one as the monsoon seems to have arrived.
I took recent pictures today, and we sent them to the landlord along with the update on the situation, at least we are documenting the issue and saving our asses on the security deposit front, since now we all know who is responsible for the damage in our living room.
So the Mystery of the leak is indeed solved, the resolution of the issue is still pending, and probably will pend for a very long time judging the attitude of the neighbours in question.
Well since that post, the wall started growing more crystals, a second wet patch appeared on the bottom of the wall, the ceiling on the balcony started dripping filling about 3 glasses of water in 24 hours, green fungus appeared in some of the wet spot, and 2 weeks ago it was totally unexplained wet patches right smack in the middle of my living room’s ceiling that made their debut, a few days of observing them made me think that my first thought of the whole issue being related to the use of an AC came back to the top of my mind because said wet patches would start spreading in the evening and disappear during the morning to only re-appear the next evening.
To summarize the saga, DH did go to our upstairs neighbours when the whole problem started to be told that they hardly ever used the AC and that we should just bear with the water seepage since the building is plagued with these in the bathroom…never mind that our leak is in a wall that has no pipes in the living room. Since DH found no evidence of any leak upstairs he asked the society manager to do his bit and check things, which he whined about saying that he was fed up hearing the same story about all the residents. At this point we of course resigned ourselves to the fact our living room wall would look like a science experiment, but wanted to make sure that our landlord at least was kept in the loop and sent pictures of the damage to him, with him replying he would escalate it with the society manager. Weeks passed, and the ceiling blotches appeared, which I documented again in pictures, and today I got a visit from the society manager and the plumber to check the extent of the damage. They both agreed that it had to come from upstairs so they asked me to accompany them to the flat above mine. I had a odd vibe that it would not go to well, so I stayed behind them letting them take the blow, and I was right, an old auntie barked in their face to please come the next morning as she didn’t want us in, the manager fortunately seemed used to that kind of resistance and informed her that he was just investigating a leak issue and wanted to check if they were having signs of seepage in their living room in an effort to properly trace the source of the leak, it seemed to have worked, they inspected the kitchen and living room in peace, until the younger lady, probably the daughter or daughter in law of the auntie in question started lecturing me aggressively on how it was a perpetual issue in the building and to stop bothering about it and not disturb them…at this point I had been staying silently in the background, wishing I was not there while the two men carried their inspection and asked to have access to the “flower bed” outside the balcony to check their split AC connection as they seemed to have found something suspicious with it, at first the lady tried to refuse to give them the key that shuts their window, but gave up quickly.
By then I had time to have a very good look at the flat: completely redone, clad in expensive marble, plaster of Paris moulding everywhere to make it look like a palace, balcony taken inside the flat, new non standard sliding windows…and ta-da the infamous split AC unit that they swore to DH’s face was never used on at full blast in a living room nobody was using until we arrived. The plumber came back inside informing the auntie that their split AC had no condensation draining pipe peaking outside the external wall as it should. She dismissed it saying that it could not be an AC damaging the walls and asked them to leave and do their job fixing the rooftop, they insisted she bring it up with her son, and she agreed, though seriously it sounded like a fake agreement to me. Now while I do not doubt the roof might need a check up, the building has 7 floors, and I live on the 3rd, and I am the only one with any water seepage in the living room in that row, a seepage so bad that water drips in a bucket in such substantial amount I can empty it daily, something that if the damage was on the roof would have affected all the other residents but has affected only me.
seeing that the lady was going to bite the manager and the plumber left with me and offered to give me a better explanation out of earshot from the bullies in my own flat.
So it seems that when my lovely upstairs neighbour installed their split AC they didn’t install a draining pipe to carry the typical condensation water out, while all people usually have a green pipe following the power line to carry such water in the storm water drain, theirs have no sign of it even existing, meaning that their AC has been draining water directly in the wall against which the unit is fixed to the point of soaking the whole wall wet and finding it’s way through the concrete natural cracks all the way to my place where the water found an escape considering I am the proud owner of typical rental flat cheap painted flats that let moisture seep out, while they clad theirs in mouldings, and vinyl paint.
At this point the society manager told me that as a tenant I don’t have much weight against them so he advised me to bring the result of the investigation with my landlord so he could in turn lodge a formal complaint with the cooperative and that we will have to see where it goes from there.
Frankly I have no hope at all of the problem getting solved, the neighbours are in aggressive denial mode, and unless someone forces their way in and break their wall and force them to install their AC properly, my flat will continue dripping away during the hot season as it seems they need the AC in there almost 24/7 even on a day like today which was a cool one as the monsoon seems to have arrived.
I took recent pictures today, and we sent them to the landlord along with the update on the situation, at least we are documenting the issue and saving our asses on the security deposit front, since now we all know who is responsible for the damage in our living room.
So the Mystery of the leak is indeed solved, the resolution of the issue is still pending, and probably will pend for a very long time judging the attitude of the neighbours in question.
