Access Agreement with Large Developer

A developer needs to setup scaffolding in our property (i.e., backyard and driveway). Our backyard will essentially become unusable and we expect our garden to have to be redone. We don’t expect to lose access to our driveway but the house will be covered and dark. We understand this is necessary for them to complete the job and but we are asking the community for what you all think is a reasonable monthly access fee? The scaffolding will be up for at least a year. In addition, what are some other things we should consider when we sign an access agreement? This is a large project that has caused some damage our house and we’ve had some difficulties in getting them resolved so we want to protect our interest and further damage.

Guest User | 4 years and 3 months ago

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IronBalls | 4 years and 3 months ago

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Yeah, most of these posts are accurate. You need an attorney from a decent firm to represent you. I wouldn’t use a sole practitioner, especially since the developer will be paying for your lawyer, so get a good one. You also need an engineer to assess the proposed work to make sure it won’t impact your property. Of course, they also have to pay for your engineer too. I’ve done this before and believe we got about 25k from the developer. Of course the work took longer than the one year time frame they estimated, and there was a period of time where they paid us additional monies monthly, but it wasn’t exorbitant, maybe $700/mo. A small amount of the rear of our building had some cracks due to shifting when they underpinned our property, and they repointed it. Reading some of these comments, I feel a little better because I didn’t like these guys either, but at least they honored the agreement and we didn’t have to go to court.

dorkofwindsor | 4 years and 3 months ago

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Urbandad I’m not an atty but there are many scenarios that have been litigated; I am not familiar with the current situation but there is a significant amount of case law on this (which necessitates an attorney who keeps up). Having said that, license fees and damages are seperate things – but I would assume being listed as additional insured on the appropriate insurance would be critical. I would clear the coverage (add insured) with my homeowners insurance to make sure the situation is acceptable.

hkapstein | 4 years and 3 months ago

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@dork, can you demand a deposit up front to restore the area? That’s probably what I would want. What if the developer goes bankrupt and your property needs to be restored?

dorkofwindsor | 4 years and 3 months ago

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This is a developer and they are purely transactional and could care less about you – there is no trust and no adherence to contracts. You will need to get any monies upfront and have to assume that they will require you go to court for one additional cent. Don’t even assume otherwise. If anything, you should be pre-planning your litigation options for various scenarios. To not do so would be naive. But what choice do you have…. not many.

cobblehillhome | 4 years and 3 months ago

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Definitely get a lawyer + contract! Think of worse case scenarios for ANYTHING that could possibly happen (also known as black swan events) and make sure that’s in the contract. ie. foundation issues, burst pipe/water damage, facade damage, etc. Also document that “before” state of your house so that you have something to point to if any damage happens.

Look what happened to this lady: https://www.bkreader.com/2021/03/09/for-this-bed-stuy-homeowner-a-new-high-rise-next-door-has-meant-no-justice-no-peace/

workisfun | 4 years and 3 months ago

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Haven’t sued yet. Might in the next year or two. Yes – we need the money up front, but part of the contract stipulated that they pay our legal fees if they breech the contract. So, it’s likely reimbursement would be part of the settlement. Just a big effing headache. Before we insisted on lawyers, they kept saying, “trust us”. Scum. We had a newborn during that time, in winter, and were cut off from our garage. Not pleasant.

deborah.ragasto | 4 years and 3 months ago

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@workisfun, curious if you did sue?? I’m in a similar situation, have an agreement that is all in our favor and yet nothing is coming of it because the contractor isn’t honoring a single thing we agreed on. We are currently debating taking them to court. Will cost us money up front, but our lawyer says we will have a very strong case, due to the agreement in place.

To the original poster, a lawyer could guide you in the $ amount. We made an arrangment that lawyer’s fees were to be covered by the developer. This worked, to a point. As soon as there was a sense of conflict, the developer is no longer holding up their end of the deal. So we have to pay the lawyer out of pocket. But hope to get it back from eventual lawsuit. Setting up an agreement with a lawyer will put you in a position to do that. My advice is, NEVER assume a developer will play by the rules of do what they agreed to.

workisfun | 4 years and 3 months ago

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I had an air-tight contract with my neighbor developer who set up on my side yard, cutting off access to backyard and garage. They went more than 100 days over, triggering the 2 stages of per diem charges. Then they said, “just sue us.” Even an air tight contract only goes so far. We should have called for a stop work order when they hit each benchmark until we were paid, instead of waiting til the end.

hkapstein | 4 years and 3 months ago

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If you say no, they can get a court order for access, so you would have to fight them in court over the terms which would likely be more expensive for both sides.

Guest User | 4 years and 3 months ago

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Typically you want a building surveyor to come and document your house pre-construction. This should include a large amount of photographs to be safe. Then you should have a construction lawyer draft a legal agreement. Before the lawyer drafts up the agreement think through a list of things you would want included.

colonialrevival | 4 years and 3 months ago

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I don’t expect to ever be in this predicament — but just curious, what happens if you say no?

shahnandersen

in General Discussion 4 years and 3 months ago

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Urbandad is absolutely right. Don’t do this without a lawyer and you probably an engineer as well. Get the developer to pay for both.

hkapstein | 4 years and 3 months ago

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This is lawyer stuff, and the developer should pay for your lawyer. Once you have one, they can advise you on what you can negotiate in the agreement.

Guest User | 4 years and 3 months ago

string(1) "3"
string(6) "195579"

i’m not sure of price but make sure there are bunch of clauses about their responsibility for restoring back to original condition including landscape, plants, grading, etc. and regularly maintaining cleanliness and security of scaffolding. hold them responsible for providing extermination on your property as part of their pest management scheme as large development often brings all the rats out.