Damage from neighbors' construction

For almost a year our neighbors have been gutting and renovating their building which they recently bought. Our stoop is now cracked, we have seen a number of cracks in our wall and tonight we found a leak in the seam of our houses by the back window and our basement wall leaking. We have been in this house for almost ten years, repointed every wall, have a new roof and survived worst rain storms (including Sandy) and never had any of these issues. I hate to complain to my new neighbors, but I am not sure what to do. I am contacting our insurance with regard to the leaks, but I am worried about structural damage to our home. What are my options?

bdz

in General Discussion 9 years and 2 months ago

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resident2 | 9 years and 2 months ago

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Are the neighbors excavating the basement? removing joists or other major structural work? If so, it may be caused by their work. The contractors/owners need to be made aware of this before you get your insurance company involved.
You have a right to go and see what is going on next door if you believe damage is being done to your property because of it.
That is the first action: to ascertain that the neighbors are the possible cause of your leaks.

Arkady | 9 years and 2 months ago

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I hope you have ‘before’ pix – maybe ones you took of completed projects? Advice on here is always to take pix at the beginning of a neighbor’s work.

emmajacob | 9 years and 2 months ago

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You should first take pics and talk to your neighbors (and send them a letter) to see if you can come to resolution. If not, you can call the DOB and file a complaint, and you should also get a construction/real estate lawyer on standby. Your neighbors (and/or their contractors) have a legal obligation to pay for damage done to your house as a result of their construction, but you do have to prove that this was a result. These repairs should be covered by their contractors’ insurance policy–of course, they may not want to file a claim against that policy, so may want to fix it without going through the whole process. See this thread: http://www.brownstoner.com/forum-archive/2010/09/is-neighbor-res/