P C R Enterprises

Protocol used to be a property manager of [redacted] in Kirkland for more than 16 years. In December of 2013, 120th Place HOA terminated the contract with Protocol because of complaint described below. I own an apartment [redacted] in [redacted] HOA.
On October 16, 2013, around 10 am, I got a phone call from [redacted] of Protocol Property Management (Protocol or property manager) telling me that they sent a plumber to the [redacted] which is below my unit [redacted] and it looked like that there was a leak from my unit. I was connected to the [redacted] (plumber) by the property manager. I agreed to be there around 1:30 pm. When I got there, the plumber already was there. He found that the hose from the water tank was leaking, and, offer to replace both of them to be safe, I agreed. It took him around 15 minutes to do that and he left. We did not see any water on the floor, it looked like that the leak was very minor, and, the water slowly accumulated in the pan of the water heater, the pan was touching the trim on the wall, from there, the water was slowly going downstairs. Because the water heater is located under the cabinet in the bathroom, it was hard to see the leak because there was no water on the floor around the water heater.
Later that day, I got a phone call from [redacted], who is the owner of apartment [redacted] below my apartment, asking to come to her apartment around 8 pm and assess the damage. I met with the tenant of the [redacted] apartment and [redacted] from the association board around 8 pm that day. They asked me to get someone there, a licensed contractor, to open up the celling. At that point, the water stopped, but the moisture still was there - cabinet's sheetrock was saturated with moisture. I talked to [redacted] and we agreed on contractor. On October 18th, the contractor we chose started working in the [redacted] unit. He completely removed all cabinet structure and a part of the celling which was under my unit's water tank. We let everything to dry for 2 weeks. Then, the contractor put everything back, new sheetrock, new texture, new paint; even some of the 2 by 4s were replaced. The same contractor replaced part of the floor in my bathroom that got saturated with moisture and put a new linoleum (because linoleum is the whole piece, the whole bathroom got a new linoleum). I end up paying around $1850 ($1460 to contractor, $360 for materials, and $30 for matching paint in [redacted] apartment). I did not include a plumbing bill in this total because it is related to the source of the damage (not extent of the damage, see below) and I took responsibility for it.
Per [redacted] tenant, the leak was reported to Protocol on October 4th, but it took 12 extra days for [redacted] to get in touch with me. Per [redacted] apartment owner, she asked [redacted] to give her phone numbers of owners in two apartments upstairs; [redacted] refused stating that it is private information. However, [redacted] did not notify me. She called me in 12 days. The first call from [redacted] was received at 9:22 am on 10/16/2013 to my home phone, but I was at work. Then, she called me on my cell phone asking to provide access to my apartment. I already described it above.
The leaking hose is a source of the leak which is my responsibility, but the extent of the damage would be substantially less if I was notified earlier (12 days earlier, 11 days earlier, 10 days earlier...). It is unacceptable for the property management company to know something and did not provide any notice about potential leak for 12 days. What about if we had a gas leak, or some other hazard that is more pernicious than water leak? There were several ways to address that water leak right away: notifying home owners above that unit, shutting off water for the whole building, calling a fire department, sending plumbers right away (not 12 days after). Why was not it done right away? If a property manager had knowledge of the leak on October 4th, 2013 the property manager had a responsibility to act on that knowledge, find the source of the leak, and try to mitigate the further damage.
I end up doing repairs in both apartments. The extent of the damage would be much less, and, repairs would be less costly, if they contacted me on October 4th. I believe that I am responsible for the source of the water damage; however, Protocol is responsible for the extent of the water damage. How to apportion the extent of the damage? I don't know. Insurance companies are hiring engineers to provide an expert opinion (which is very costly) how to allocate the damage to responsible parties. I believe that if that leak was reported right away, most likely scenario would be painting celling in the ** apartment, maybe even not.
I want to bring to Protocol's management attention that having knowledge of some events that can have adverse conditions on Protocol's customers and not addressing them for 12 days is a negligence (under respondent superior doctrine, employee, [redacted] binds the principals), and, under the tort law in the United States there are remedies for negligence. I believe that Protocol's liability insurer supposed to know about incidents like that. Insurance companies underwrite risk; they have to charge a higher rate for higher risk. In addition, other parties supposed to be able to inquire about precedents like that. If tomorrow there is another incident like that (where Protocol did not bother notify homeowners for a couple weeks) with more grim consequences, those parties supposed to see the information that something similar had happened before. Therefore, having consumer protection in mind, I felt that I need to report that incident to Revdex.com to stay there as a matter of public records. If Protocol wants to settle this complaint I would accept at least 50% of prorated amount that was listed above ($1850) which is $925. Otherwise, the complaint would stay.
On November 28th, 2013, I sent an email to the management of the Protocol Property Management that included the information above. The email was sent through one of the Board members of 120th Place HOA. Until now, Protocol did not contact me.
At the end of December, 2013, the Board of the [redacted] expressed their vote of no confidence in Protocol Property Management and replaced Protocol with another management company. According to Board members it could be done earlier but because of 30 days' notice requirement they end up doing it in December 2013.