Playdough costs Association Real Dough

By Melissa & Denise Stewart

When the plumber was called out to the 16th floor of this particular condo building, it seemed like a normal "clogged pipe" call. So much so that the plumber went to lunch first. The plumbing company had a contract with the entire building and generally if there was a plumbing problem, he knew right where to look...

When the plumber arrived at the unit, he knocked on the door and the tenant that was living in the unit explained that the drains in both of her bathrooms were overflowing. He thought this was a little unusual for this part of the building. 

The plumber went to his truck to retrieve his 50 foot electric snake in order to clear the lines. He was only gone about 10 minutes.  While he was away his pager went off again, and the message was to see the owner of a unit on the 10th floor of the same building. He started to think that this was very unusual...

The next thing the plumber decided he needed to do was to shut off the main water line to the entire building. It was around 2:30 PM and he knew kids would be getting home from school soon, and people would be returning from work a little later, so he knew that time was of the essence. He did not want 150+ families home at dinner time without water.

Then things really got interesting. 

While he was enterring the elevator he noticed that there was water dripping into the elevator. The elevator stopped abruptly on the 5th floor and the doors would not open, then the lights went out.

It took him about 5 minutes, and he was finally able to pry the doors of the elevator open. After getting out of the elevator and picking up his tools and snake, he heard several people talking loud from what seemed to be upstairs. The loud talking soon became shouting and it seemed they were yelling something about "flooding".  He started to run towards the stairs and when he opened the stairway door, he was met with water gushing down the hallway. He immediately had wished that he would have turned off the water to the building before going in the elevator. 

In the next 5 minutes he was able to get to his truck, get the special wrench needed, and finally get the water shut off to the entire building. He also decided that having the electric on while water was in the hallways was probably a safety hazard, so he decided that he would turn off the electricity to the entire building. While he was heading to the meter room, he decided to call his office to start explaining the nightmare. He had more time than needed because the meter room door was locked. While he was running to the management office he heard what was the first of many sirens.

He was able to get the meter room key, and as he was headed back to the meter room, the first fire truck pulled into the parking lot. Two firemen jumped off the truck and were racing in the same direction of the meter room. He met them at the door, and within 30 seconds the electricity in the entire building was shut off. Within the next 15 minutes, there were at least 15 emergency vehicles, and 20 police cars surrounding the condo complex. Within 30 minutes there were over 50 of the residents standing in the parking lot all wondering why they were asked to leave their condos. 

For the next 3 hours the police and other emergency crews went door to door asking everyone to evacuate the building because it was deemed an "Unsafe Structure". Several of the condos had their ceilings collapse, and there was water coming out of every conceivable opening in about half of the units. It was now getting dark, and the Mayor was called in to call the Red Cross to find temporary housing for the families that could not afford a hotel. The families were told that they would be gone "Indefinately". Some families were allowed to enter into their (dark) condos and retrieve clothing and valuables, and were told they had "5 Minutes, and only 2 plastic bags".

It took 30 days before the people were allowed to go back into their condos. Over 50% of the units had sever water damage, and the losses  exceeded $10,000,000. Lawsuits were being filed and everyone that could have been connected to the damages were being sued, or at least threatened. Several of the owners did not have insurance, and were eventually foreclosed out of their condos.

The main defendant in the lawsuits was Mrs. Smith. It seems that after a lengthy investigation involving some of the City's finest engineers, the entire problem was a result of her son's creativity with playdough. Little Junior, for weeks, had been creating small playdough ducks, with cute beaks and eyes that any mom would have been proud of.... The only problem was that Junior was flushing all of his extra playdough down the toilet because he did not want to make a mess.  So much so that the pipes on the first floor of the condo finally were clogged to the point that they would allow no water to go through.  This would not been catastrophic had the owner of a condo on the 2nd floor not had a heart attack just after he turned on his bath water that was running for 5 hours before the first call was made to the plumber. The only other problem was that this was Thursday, and on Thursdays the laundry machines on this side of the building were in use constantly which also added thousands of gallons of water to the flooding.

There could be several lessons to be learned from the devestation caused by this creative 4 year old. 

One Realtor was heard to mutter  "I sold 2 of the foreclosures in the building, so I guess I should thank that little boy".

Hopefully that Realtor no longer has a license....

 If you have any questions about Condos, Please call Denise Stewart at 954 881 9148