Neighbors contractor dented my siding and replaced it with wrong color. What recourse do I have?

Question

While replacing my neighbors basement wall, his contractor hit the side of my house and put a hole in the siding. After a month of waiting, they came and replaced the siding with white siding. My house is beige. It looks ridiculous. What legal recouse do I have? Do I have to deal with a huge white patch on the side of my house or can I go after the contractor to fix it?

Answer 1

Determine how much it would cost to fix the situation; if it's just one or two pieces of siding + labor, it may not amount to a large enough sum worth contacting a lawyer. Find out what the monetary limit of Small Claims Court is in your jurisdiction and if the cost is less than that, take the guy to SCC. If it's more substantial, then contact a lawyer because you don't want the cost of the lawyer to exceed the cost to fix your house!

Answer 2

Well, you can always go after him, I'd try small claims court. But they'll say, did he do a reasonable job of trying to repair it? And the answer is probably yes. Depending on how old your siding is, matching the color is likely to be difficult at best (after it's been on the house, it fades, you know?), and if it's old enough, matching the size is pretty tough, too. It's NOT reasonable to expect the guy to reside your entire house. In my opinion. But a judge might feel differently.

I think you'll have to go to court over this, because his liability policy probably won't pay to reside without a fight.

Answer 3

You might have to hit small claims court. If nothing else, the threat of a suit might spark some corrective action.

Try www.nolo.com . They have free forms and info you might find helpful.

If you do it yourself, I think it can be cheap. If you sign up for nolo's trial membership, I believe it entitles you to one consultation with a lawyer (Double check that. I know they offered that 2 years ago when I needed their site).

The other thing you can do is to file an insurance claim through your own home owners insurance. You can rest assured that your insurance company has plenty of lawyers to deal with such stuff.

Also, you might ask your neighbor to withold final payment to that contractor until your house is fixed properly.

Good luck.

Answer 4

You can totally go after the contactor. Take a picture NOW. Call a LAWYER NOW. Do NOT talk to the contractor have your LAWYER deal with him. Make that lazy ignorant bastard pay what he owes you.