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well ok frankly i would not listen to me about anything maybe talk to an attorney but you can probably pull the building inspection file which might have a permit app for the fence if one was required that would give you the name of the contractor then you could use ccap to see if anyone else sued them and if an insurance company was involved might give you a place to start to try and take this to the bank
Why wouldn't they accept it if they were insuring the fence company at the time? I know insurance companies try to get out of claims all the time but this seems like it's pretty obvious.
We looked for a fence permit online and couldn't find one, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't have one. I'll have to go down to City Hall or wherever and see if they have a paper copy of it. If they do, then I should be able to get the name. If not, then it would mean my neighbor does NOT have a permit and that might even make my case stronger.
Not saying they wouldn't. Again, it has been a while since I've looked at claims files for contracting risks (my previous employer didn't insure contractors). I honestly don't remember if the true date of the loss is the date of the job (when the damage to the pipe likely occurred) or the date that the subsequent damage was discovered. I suppose they could make the argument that the pipes broke down over time and the fence post eventually settled into them.
Yes. Wisconsin is a "direct action" state so you can sue the insurer directly. It might be a bit of a goose chase depending on the nature of the fence company. If they were a Wisconsin corporate entity and did it by the book (unlikely), there would be a record with the sec of state and you could find the corporate agent, contact him or sue him to get the insurance info. Add a couple zeroes to your damages number and it's well worth it. As it stands, it's a tough call. I would start by googling the company, searching CCAP, looking for names to contact or maybe other lawsuits. If she won't even give you the name of the company, you might have to get heavy. Why trust her statement that they are out of biz?
Oh, it's obvious. I've got plenty of pictures and videos. All of the breaks involve either the fence post AND the cement footing or just the cement footing going thru the pipes. A fourth post being dug actually push the pipe inward from the middle so the pipe itself had a slight bow. There is absolutely NO WAY someone digging didn't notice this. There had to be water seeping in those holes. My guess is they dug the hole for the fence posts, said "oh ####" and quickly covered it up.
TBH, we haven't had much contact with them since this happened. When we had it dug up they weren't even interested in looking at the damage so that was pretty much a signal to me that they were going to make this difficult.
The OP's property policy is occurrence, but I would think the service provider's liability policy would be claims-made. I'm not sure whether that's good or bad, it's all pretty much a long shot imo, but perhaps worth chasing down depending on how valuable your time is.
If that's the case, I'd absolutely do what I could to go after the contractor's insurer. (if they had one). Again, I think there's a good chance you'll be out of luck (because so many distressed contracting operations carry lousy insurance or none at all) but it cant hurt.
This. And if I don't have cash in hand by Monday and workers moving the fence, my contractor will begin removing the fence on Tuesday. Tell them verbally and hand them the letter reiterating it. I'm not a lawyer but sometimes I like to play one on the internet.
It sure seems weird that you wouldn't be able to sue the neighbor directly. I'm no Wisconsin lawyer though.
If they can't produce proof of coverage for the contractor, he should able to. If they did things the right way, the neighbor would have gotten a COI from the contractor's insurance provider holding the neighbor harmless and providing them with additional insured status. If they cut corners and didn't do that, they left themselves open for a lawsuit and should be held accountable.
Oh great ...arguing with an engineer that he is wrong - good luck with that. Most would rather die being choked by a flaming ####-ka-bob than admit they were wrong.
Well it's one thing if the contractor was negligent, but if the contractor was just doing what the neighbor directed him to do, I don't see why the contractors insurance is necessarily implicated (unless the contractor had some obligation to do some due diligence on the property line and the existence of pipes, etc, maybe it did).
The contractor is supposed to be the one with expertise here. They typically have "call before dig" responsibility in situations like this. They can't just take the homeowners word for it and start digging holes in the ground. What if they hit a gas line? Someone could get killed.
Correct.
We figured we had to repair it because we wouldn't be able to sell the house - which we planned on doing very soon.
Yeah, we think it's very fishy too, almost like she's covering for someone she knows. In any event, it's either going to be the fence company (if, in fact, they really arent' out of business), the insurance company or her that is going to have to pay for it.
Yeah, just doing some reading on them it seems like they are not really worth the effort. I don't know if a prospective owner of my house is going to want to deal with it. Might even make my house harder to sell.
Seriously, I just dealt with something just like this on a property (albeit not between two homeowners) in California. If you've got a survey showing the fence is on your property, the onus is on them to make it right.
What does this mean "the statute of limitations on an action not based on contract for damage to property is 6 years in Wisconsin"? Based on whose contract? A contractor I hired or she hired? Does it even matter in this case?
That's a great question that you would need to pose to someone with a legal background in your state. If taken at face value you may be ish-outta luck, but it may not apply in this case.
We're weighing our options right now, trying to find the best course of action that's going to cause the least amount of pain (emotionally and financially) for us. Believe me, all options are currently on the table. A lot is going to depend on how they react when we present them with the definitive proof. I'm not expecting anything different the second time around, but if we go to court we can at least say we tried to find a reasonable way to resolve it and they refused - twice.
Nothing. Robert Frost said "good fences make good neighbors."
