Marylander condo boiler mishap?

if the controls run away and the relief valve fails or has been tampered with the energy has to go somewhere.

I would guess that lack of heat caused the domestic water to freeze and break.

Probably the heating pipes also.

Pictures of the boiler room would be interesting.

One would think that the homeless would be living in the boiler room for warmth.

or someone stole the copper from the mechanical room depending on what sort of area it is in.

you have to remember the real estate company will ask what people will pay in condo fees, not what it costs to run the condo complex.

@jumper asked: Saturday's Wall Street Journal. There's a youtube of a local TV news piece about this. Supposedly homeless invaded the complex and sabotaged a boiler. My question is how to do that to raise pressure enough to burst pipes?

I don't believe the boiler pressure ever got above 30 PSI in that place. Burst pipes are usually a result of water freezing inside the pipes. You may have burst pipes on bothe the potabel wot and cold water and the hydronic system. That's gonna cost a ton fo $$$ to get it right.

There actually are some condo associations where all the owners are willing to make the needed investments in maintenance and upkeep, and I'm fortunate to live in one of them. Unfortunately such associations are few and far between.

Yes, we have only 4 units. Very small associations like this are common in the Boston area where I live. One of the most common residential structures around here is the triple-decker house, tens of thousands of wich were built as high-density housing in the late 1800's/early1900's. Each floor is a separate self-contained apartment unit. Many of these buildings have been converted into condos, with only 3 units in the association.

With only 2 or 3 other owners, it's possible to find associations like ours where everyone is willing to fund needed repairs and keep up with preventive maintenance. But as you correctly imply, the probability of having other owners who want to cheap out and refuse to fund needed improvements increases significantly with more units/larger associations. As I mentioned, I almost got burned by that in Denver where all the buildings were shoddily built to start with, and then the owners cheaped out and let the place fall apart.

I guess that makes sense in areas where there's enough open land for a developer to build a complex with a few hundred units. In the near-Boston area, what usually happens is a small investor buys a triple-decker from the family that has owned it for 50+ years, and maybe has rented one or two of the units out for income. Then the developer rehabs the building and files the legal papers to convert it into 3 condo units. There are probably tens of thousands of such "associations" within 15 miles of downtown Boston.

i think the ultimate problem is that the property isn't worth what it would cost to fix it.

you could truck in temporary heat to fulfill the housing ordinance requirement and that wouldn't cost 2.5 million.

the problem with noresidents on the property didn't just start yesterday, you're not going to fix that overnight and you certainly aren't going to fix it if you think it is the police and the condo association's problem.