Belltown Condo Owners Deal With Headaches After Massive Flood Damage

Condo owners in Seattle's Mosler Lofts are dealing with severe property damage and huge insurance headaches after a shower that was left running for six hours overflowed a bathtub and spilled hundreds of gallons of water into several units in the building.

Young Lee, a resident in the building, said a woman on the seventh floor of the Belltown building caused the damage when she turned on her shower late at night and then fell asleep. Three floors down, Lee's loft suffered water damage in the walls and much of his bamboo hardwood floors had to come up.

"They came and took some of the floor out to dry the cement," Lee said. "Now we're waiting for them to come in and replace the whole floor."

Asked how long his loft had been in a state of disrepair, Lee said, "About three and a half weeks. We're living just with our boxes."

Lee's loft is one of the least damaged in the building. A dozen people had to move out because their units were destroyed by the water.

Sources told KIRO 7 the insurance policy for the homeowner's association is supposed to cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, and that the owner of the loft where the bathtub overflowed is supposed to pay pay a $10,000 insurance deductible. But some homeowners have wondered if they'll be forced to pay more in homeowner's dues, and they've worried that their property values have gone down the drain.

Experts we spoke with said condo owners should always have their own insurance policies, but even then, some insurers won't cover damage if it comes from another unit.

KIRO 7 tracked down one homeowner who woke up to a huge crack in her ceiling and a waterfall showering down on her bed. She said she's been living in a hotel for the past month, paid for by her own insurance company.

She was going to show us the damage to her condo but changed her mind.

A homeowner invited KIRO 7 to a homeowner's association meeting but the building's managers wouldn't let us in. We were told that at the meeting, attorneys told homeowners not to talk to the media.

Sources also told us that the cleanup has uncovered possible code violations in the building's construction, which are delaying repair work and could lead to lawsuits from homeowners.

We tried for days to get ahold of the homeowner's association and the building managers, but only got this e-mail in response:

"(It is) company policy to not discuss client matters with anyone that is not an Association Member."