It all began with our inspector who didn’t note or put in his report that the boiler in our building is old and ready to conk out. In other words, he didn’t estimate the lifespan of our boiler.

The average lifespan of a boiler is 10 to 15 years. But our boiler is older than that. In fact, it’s 20 years old! The inspector should have noted this, and of course he didn’t. Which means he’s culpable for at least part, if not all, of our cost of a new boiler.

Additionally, we had to call the Skokie Air Control people because the radiator in our dining room isn’t working. He found out it has a huge hole in it, another thing our inspector didn’t see or put in his report. Also there’s no radiator in the master bedroom. The Air Control guy said the previous owner must have stolen it. I believe it just wasn’t working and the previous owner had it taken out.

Now we have buy two new radiators and pay a portion of the new boiler. The President of our Board is doing everything he can to get us a new boiler and by next week we should have one. However, for the length of the time it’s being put in – a full day – we’ll have no heat. So we’ve had to buy a new heater.

Meanwhile, we’ve contacted our lawyer to get compensation from our inspector. This means we have to supply him with the cost of the new boiler, the radiators and the new heater we need to buy so we can recourse from the inspector.

On the plus side, we still have heat but it’s sporadic. Plus our new boiler will use less gas and less water. This is a great benefit to the building and our association fees.

If there are any other complications with our boiler – old or new – I’ll keep you posted.

Signing off now…..

Sue Powers