This week’s edition of As The Contractor Trashes is set over near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A reader who rents an apartment in a four-story building in the area had a rude awakening when a developer recently bought the empty lot next door. Within 24 hours of foundation work beginning, the contractor tore a 5-foot gash in the garden level wall of his den, just missing all of his stereo and computer equipment. When the foreman showed up to inspect the damage, it became apparent that he didn’t even know the building had a basement, which was pretty important since they had been planning to put the new foundation’s underpinnings right through the space currently occupied by the washer and dryer. The contractor then admitted to the reader’s landlord over the phone that his crew was not shoring up any part of the existing building. The next day, the contractors dislodged a piece of slate that fell into the pit, exposing the existing building’s insulation and bursting its pipes, which in turn caused cracks to form in the side of the building. Three hours later, inspectors showed up and slapped up a Vacate Order on the reader’s building, which stayed in effect for a week. During this time, the contractors built a retaining wall inside his apartment, blocking access to his stove in the process. Our reader’s question is whether he, the other tenants or the landlord has any legal recourse. Anyone know?