Gut renovation/neighbor damage

Hi all. We are currently about half way through gut renovating a brownstone . Our neighbors have been pretty patient and we are striving to be open about the process with them, accommodating their requests and concerns as best we can. We built an extension so there was major work done that impacted their houses and lives significantly.

Our neighbors just brought to our attention some damage our renovation may have caused. I don’t want to get into too many specifics but I was curious what happens when our construction might have worsened a pre-existing condition and how to deal with it. While there was no single event that caused the damage directly (like a steel beam didn’t fall through our party wall and into his house), I don’t doubt the intense digging/vibrations from all our work in erecting the extension may have worsened an issue that was there before. I’m all for correcting the issue but I think it’s serious enough that it’s going to be a serious amount of money and our finances are already stretched thin as you can imagine. We have a builder’s risk insurance po licy and our contractor is fully insured, so I may have to go through insurance for this. How does insurance work in this situation? Does anyone have experience with this? My broker just said the neighbor should file a claim with his insurance and they will sort it out with our insurance. What happens in the meantime? Our neighbor can’t repair their house in the meantime?

My main worry is that the insurance companies will fight over who is at fault and meanwhile my neighbor’s house deteriorates and our relationship worsens to the point that it will impact finishing the renovation (not to mention us living next to each other for a few decades).

Anyone’s past experiences with this type of thing in their renovations would be really helpful. Anything we should avoid in dealing with insurance? Any help would be much appreciated.

blaqhole

in Renovation 6 years and 7 months ago

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blaqhole | 6 years and 7 months ago

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Thanks all for the responses.

Thanks for the link @bklynreno. It was super helpful to see how people dealt with it in the past.

@resident2 unfortunately our contractor isn’t able to handle the brick work that would need to be repaired since it involves replacing repointing part of a brick wall. It is cosmetic but the neighbor did already talk about when they got it last repointed and if we fixed it and it didn’t look right, we definitely wouldn’t hear the end of it.

@allans When we first started the renovation, I asked the neighbors to document their place in case damage happens but they never did. I suppose I should have asked if I could have done it for them but sadly, that never happened.

@SoSlope, Aw shucks. We never want to move again so I think we need to keep the peace!

@CarmenR, I’m so sorry to hear that you went through that. That’s what I’m hoping to avoid. I’m worried insurance would delay things and then our neighbor would step over to the dark side so I think we may try to avoid it. But, it will come down to the cost of repair.

@Eftgreene, it’s no t structural thankfully but it’s a little more serious than just cosmetic work as we will have to redo some brick work. Luckily our excavation passed without incident and we didn’t harm their foundations. Great advice about doing things right from the jump being cheaper in the long run.

If anyone else has any other relevant experiences or insights to share, please do!

Guest User | 6 years and 7 months ago

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You did not describe the type of damages that occurred. Cosmetic or structural? When your foundation was dug were there vibration monitors, etc. as the law requires? You should have gotten a license/party wall agreement beforehand that would have included a pre-construction survey that would have documented the previous condition of your neighbor’s house. State law requires such legal agreements if excavation within 10′ of the property line is occurring and your contractor should have known that. If it’s foundation damage then your neighbor’s home insurance won’t cover it because the cause was “earth movement”, but your contractor’s liability policy should not have had that exclusion as per DOB regulations. Being the victim of a shady developer who damaged me, being three years in with a lawsuit going, I suggest you work with your neighbor and pay for a consulting structural engineer of his choice to assess the damages and go from there. If your contracto r is an honest guy he knows his policy should cover the damages. I promise you that just stepping up and doing the right thing will be cheaper in the long run and preserve whatever good neighborly relations you have.

CarmenR | 6 years and 7 months ago

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We had an issue like this with a neighbor who was not so nice. We ended up fixing the things that impacted our property (they had punched a hole in the party wall during their own renovation years ago which we fixed, including underpinning, at 100% our own expense) and we offered to repair cosmetic issues in his house also at 100% our expense but he declined. He made a ton of noise and caused lots of drama but eventually dropped it. Good for you for having a sane neighbor! Be aware, however, that people can start to act crazy at the drop of a hat- our neighbor seemed nice and reasonable until we discovered a bunch of damage to our property caused by him during the work he had done previously- then he lost his mind.

We’re about 3 years out from that whole ordeal and we are just now starting to say hello to him on the street.

SoSlope | 6 years and 7 months ago

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@blaqhole sounds like a great neighbor. The fact that you are trying to do right by your neighbor should go a long way to keeping peace and harmony.

allans | 6 years and 7 months ago

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Always ask for permission to take photos pre-construction if you share a party walls with adjoining neighbors. This allows for evidence in case something comes up.

resident2 | 6 years and 7 months ago

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Speak to your contractor; maybe they would prefer to go & make the repairs rather than have a claim against their Insurance.
When you are doing major works against a 100 + year old building physical disturbance to the property next door is not unheard of and most contractors working on such buildings add a contingency into their budget to take care of things like this.
Obviously there will be a problem if your neighbor does not trust your contractor and does not want them working on their house, but even then I have seen a contractor paying the neighbors contractor to take care of things so long as they can agree on prices.

Guest User | 6 years and 7 months ago

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https://www.brownstoner.com/forum/#!/general-discussion:damage-from-neighbors-cons

Guest User | 6 years and 7 months ago

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There is an old post on the forum but from the neighbor with the damage’s point of view. Hope this helps. Search “Damage from neighbors’ construction”.