1. Article Body
A unit owner cannot inspect a common element roof and should not try. What you can do is inspect your own exposure and ask the association the right questions.
Inside your unit, twice a year
Walk every ceiling on the top floor with the lights off and a flashlight held at a shallow angle. Raking light shows staining and bulging that overhead light hides.
Check the tops of exterior walls, particularly in corners and around any chimney chase or column.
Check around any skylight or roof hatch inside your unit.
Check closets and storage spaces, which are often against exterior walls and rarely looked at.
Open and look inside any access hatch you legitimately control.
Your balcony or terrace, quarterly
This is the part you genuinely control and the most common source of water intrusion.
Clear the drain completely. Check nothing is stored on or over it.
Check that water runs to the drain rather than pooling, and that the level at the door threshold is below the surrounding surface.
Check sealant at the threshold and at any railing post penetration.
After heavy rain, look at how the balcony actually drains rather than how it is supposed to.
What to look at from the ground
Walk outside and look up at the roof edge above your unit with binoculars.
Look for lifted or displaced edge metal, staining down the wall below a scupper, and vegetation growing at roof level, which indicates standing water and accumulated debris.
What to request from the association, in writing
The date of the last roof inspection and a copy of the report.
The roof's installation date and system type.
The most recent reserve study and the remaining useful life figure it uses for the roof.
Whether a roof condition assessment has been commissioned and when.
Any board minutes discussing the roof.
Requests in writing create a record. Verbal requests do not.
Documentation to keep
Dated photographs of every stain, every occurrence and every balcony condition.
Copies of every report you made, and every reply.
Your declaration and bylaws, and your unit owner policy.
If a dispute arises about when a problem was first reported, this file is the only thing that will settle it.
When to escalate
When a reported leak recurs after a repair.
When a report goes unanswered.
When a condition assessment has never been done and the roof is past the midpoint of its expected life.
Escalate in writing to the board, not to the onsite manager alone.
