Has anyone sued neighbors contractor for damages?
Our home has been damaged by a foundation contractor working on a neighboring property. The damages are greater than $20,000 so says an engineer, and repairs will be very disruptive. Our insurance company says our home owner’spolicy does not cover ‘contractor negligence’. The general contractor refuses to give us any information about his insurance company,…
Our home has been damaged by a foundation contractor working on a neighboring property. The damages are greater than $20,000 so says an engineer, and repairs will be very disruptive. Our insurance company says our home owner’spolicy does not cover ‘contractor negligence’. The general contractor refuses to give us any information about his insurance company, but has offered to fix everything when he’s done. I don’t ever want to talk to him again let alone allow him to step foot in my house. Anyone out there successfully sue a contractor that was not working on your house? Interested in any information. Does one sue the owner of the property or the subcontractor who caused the damage? Are we able to recoup legal fees? What about the pain in my ass?
D Napletano http://www.napoletanolaw.com excellant local attorney , 351 Court Street 718 522 1377
Thanks all for your info in this thread. I live in a small free standing, 110 year old building next door to a lot that is on the market. I’ve been living in dread since of course there will be a new building built on that site that will involve a deep excavation and the underpinning my house’s stone foundation. I’m in the process of shopping for new insurance that will provide enough coverage in case of structural damage resulting from adjacent construction. Has anyone found an insurance company that does provide such specific coverage? What should I ask for etc. I know of several homeowners who have actually lost their houses due to damage from careless next door building.
Thanks all for your info in this thread. I live in a small free standing, 110 year old building next door to a lot that is on the market. I’ve been living in dread since of course there will be a new building built on that site that will involve a deep excavation and the underpinning my house’s stone foundation. I’m in the process of shopping for new insurance that will provide enough coverage in case of structural damage resulting from adjacent construction. Has anyone found an insurance company that does provide such specific coverage? What should I ask for etc. I know of several homeowners who have actually lost their houses due to damage from careless next door building.
This from The Scarab at 11:47, “Everything in your post is bad advice and I own a hell of a lot more real estate than you do.”
That’s so surprising Scarab to hear you’re a real estate mogul. Because you’ve been on the other threads lately saying everything in Brooklyn is overpriced and the real estate market is going to crash. Does that mean you’re selling all those properties of yours this year, then?
OP here. My insurance company is Allstate. My agent said that the damages resulting from an others contractor are not covered by my policy. Not an act of god as he put it. What about an act of the devil? Still not covered. It seems this is very common.It is almost impossible to decipher your policy’s hieroglyphics. I guess thats why lawyers make $350/hour. I suggest everyone politely call their agents to see if they are covered. My business lawyer, looked over my policy and seems to think that I am not covered. He was the one who suggested I contact my insurance company in the first place as there is no legal cost to myself. Allstate pays me and then their lawyers go after the contractor, and then, almost forgot, Allstate cancels my policy. Alstate is supposed to send me some kind of denial of coverage letter.
The contractor is no one that seems to do business in the BrownStoner Area. The neighbor who owns the property is some anonymous L.L.C.
I am still interested in the stories of anyone who has actually collected damages. Most likely I will be signing up my lawyer after the holidays and will fill you in on the results when everything is over. Thank you.
10:46 – owning 2 houses doesn’t make you an expert and you’re just plain wrong.
Over $20,000 of damage to a foundation is definitely avoidable and not a routine occurance.
No judge would accept as “satisfactory” any offer from a contractor, especially when the contractor wasn’t hired by the owner of the damaged property. Period. There is no preceeding business relationship between the owner of the damaged property and the contractor, and there’s no job between you and the contractor to be “fixed”.
The doctor example is correct, or further, if your car gets rear-ended by someone else, you’re under no obligation to use their mechanic to fix it… and if they happen to be a mechanic and they offer to fix it, no judge would deem that “satisfactory”.
I agree with the above comment about calling your insurance company and screaming at them. Do they believe it was a contractor YOU hired or do they understand it’s due to the negligence of YOUR NEIGHBOR’s contractor? If your neighbor’s insurance doesn’t cover contractor errors, then that’s their problem but it shouldn’t be yours. If they still put up a fight, I’d look into a lawyer to pursue things with the insurance company, in court if need be, as well as to sue your neighbor and their contractor if neccessary.
Also, did you do a DOB check on your neighbor’s property to see if they had a permit for the work? If not, it would be another reason why the contractor and the neighbor want to settle things under the table. Look into it as it could provide you with more legal leverage if they don’t have a permit.
I’m really, REALLY glad you’re not my neighbor, 10:46.
I had work done next to my building and the developer needed access to my property in order to do his work. I was advised to demand that he put money in escrow or not allow him to set foot on my property. Best advice I ever got.
10:46 if a neighbor/developer puts up his building properly; uses a high quality contractors, which is the only kind of contractor to use when digging a foundation next to 100 year old buildings; has the adjacent buildings named as additionally insured in his construction insurance; then there would not be any need for lawsuits and unhappy neighbors. Your argument that buildings get damaged all the time and if you can’t handle it then you shouldn’t own a building is ludicrous and so is your advice/threat to not sue your neighbor after he has damaged your building out of fear of retribution. A better piece of advice would be, if you don’t have the proper resources to put up a building with out insuring your neighbors, then don’t do it.
10:46,
You don’t have to be a lawyer to have common sense business experience.
If the next door neighbors aren’t actively taking responsibility and fixing the damage, the only recourse is to sue them.
Everything in your post is bad advice and I own a hell of a lot more real estate than you do.
This thread is extremely close to home for me. Similar thing next door to us but so far the damage is not as bad as yours. I do feel your pain. Same story with the contractor wanting to use his guy to fix the now broken concrete walk between the two properties. He even introduced me to his concrete guy. Fat chance. No way are we going to have someone who gets major jobs from the contractor working on my property. What do you think the priority will be: Do a good job to the specifications of the homeowner or do it as quickly and cheaply so the contractor doesn’t have to pay too much for the fix?
Some things to keep in mind: make sure you document all damage with calls to the DOB. The contractor next door has tried to tell the neighbors not to call the DOB because he can “take care of repairs faster” without getting stop work orders. Somehow we’re supposed to think that works to our benefit while he’s really just saving his own hide. If we did that we’d be giving him free reign to continue damaging our property. Don’t believe a word. Those guys are NOT working in your best interest or they would taken more care NOT to damage your property. They are doing a shitty rush job and don’t want to get caught. Document everything- all our dealings with our idiot are in writing and we have the DOB stop work order that proves there was a definite problem.
It’s not a bad idea to write your city councilman and also councilman Tony Avilla. He has spearheaded the effort to change things at DOB. Let your State Assemblyperson know too. A couple of them (Joseph Lentol, Jim Brennan) were sponsoring a bill to make developers put money in escrow to pay for damages so neighboring homeowners wouldn’t have the expense of suing. The more they hear from folks like you, the more they can prove the need for the bill.
You are definitely supposed to get better service from your insurance company. Our damage is really minor, we haven’t called ours yet but after hearing your story we definitely need to contact a lawyer that handles this kind of stuff to send letters to the insurance company as well as the developer/owner/contractor in case we run into those problems, too.
Anyone out there know a great lawyer??