Sandy Cavallo can’t hide how she feels about the state of her five-year-old condo.
The condo board said her unit, along with seven others in the building, have damage from water infiltration. It estimates the total repair bill could be as high as $5 million, and that has some co-owners fearing the worst.
“The worst case is that we lose everything,” she said.
The board is suing Devler, the developer of the project. It filed the lawsuit in Quebec superior court last year.
Devler’s lawyer said Thursday that they won’t comment on the case because the matter is before the court.
Real estate lawyer, Pierre Champagne, is not involved with this case, but he says it’s all too familiar.
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“We’ve had cases where we’ve had two, three, $4-million losses.”
Owners aren’t always protected.
According to the Insurance Board of Canada, the board’s insurance policy won’t cover this kind of damage. In a statement to Global News, the insurance board says it can’t comment on particular cases — but that “there is an exclusion for infiltration and mould, and if the infiltration has been continuous and repeated, there will be no coverage by the insurance.”
In Quebec, there is a Guarantee Plan for New Residential Buildings which covers some defects. But there are exceptions and buildings like Cavallo’s aren’t eligible for the coverage anyway.
“It wouldn’t apply to renovated buildings,” Champagn explains. “It only applies to new buildings, new construction.”
The building in question was an old commercial complex that was converted into mostly residential units
There’s another big problem for which Champagne says he and others have been after the government to amend the law, to address.
It’s the lack of certain regulations in the province.
“There should be compulsory surveillance of the work at the time of construction, during construction, by an independent architect or engineer.”
Right now, that doesn’t happen, and it leaves buyers vulnerable.
“Quite frankly, I don’t think there are many ways in which he can protect himself,” he says.
The first thing every new buyer should do, he says, is check the records of the Regie du Batiment, to see “if this builder has been the subject of penalties, infractions, what’s the civil and criminal record.”
Cavallo and the other co-owners at the condo are just hoping the result of the lawsuit will help save them from financial ruin
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