Should I sue the builder? (cost, houses, basement, check)
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I am just getting desperate as far as having to wait for the next rain and crossing my fingers while at work . I Agree they are working on fixing the problem and there is no solid ground to sue them .... but I guess I wanted to hear your opinions so thank you
i think that you should have walked away after they didn't fix it the first time. Having put up with this for 3 years....amazes me. Did you report them to your State? Did you report them to BBB?
I honestly don't know if you have legal recourse after you have continued to live there for 3 years. I would have bailed....within a few months. Please go see a reputable real estate attorney....or a personal injury attorney....because you have definitely been injured by this situation, financially and mentally.
I honestly feel so badly for you. I worked in the flood disaster field for about 3 years. The repeated flooding of your basement is a health risk to your family....in the disaster arena there would be mitigation and resource information.....maybe check on FEMA home page for resources to make sure you are protecting yourself and your family.
I did a bit of research to find some links that may help you. I would definitely stop letting them lead the investigation into the "why" because after 3 years they have only proven they know nothing. You have to become proactive. You have to find real companies to help you....Take control....stop volunteering to be there test case......
What does your homeowners insurance say??? I cannot imagine any insurance company allowing this situation to continue for 3 years??
I agree with you it sounds weird I sound more focused on the yard .. some kind of denial I think. Anyway I just had a mold test that was negative. I usually get the flooding company out on the same day and the water never stayed inside for more than couple of hours. I always get air blowers and dehumidifiers on within the hour or so
I was never thinking about sueing but wanted to make sure that was the right decision ... I think it is
It has got to be an unfinished basement??? Any standing water in a finished basement would be hazardous....and any water will wick up into your sheet rock walls.....What mold tests are you using??
Contact your local County Extension Service.....have them come out and talk to them about this ongoing flooding, ask them to test for moisture and molds in your walls and studs. https://nifa.usda.gov/extension It is free.
I bought a new house in 2015 and from day 1 ( I am 100% serious) I have been getting flooding in my basement . The builder and his contractor came up with so many theories and spent at least one day per month in my house for the past three years. They have torn my front yard grass multiple times and had to replace it while I had to care for it ( patches of new grass on and on and on). Few days ago we had a basement flooding for the 100 time and this time not only they cut the concrete in the floor they will be digging 9 foot in the front of the house to put a perimeter drain which was suppose to be put down while the house was being built. They will be damGing the front yard one more time with the hope this will fix it once for all.
We have been living like this for three years and I honestly do not know if this will fix the problem.... should I sue them ??????
I was involved in a lawsuit against a builder led by and over hyped HOA president. Builder was a nice guy, yeah things could have been done better but he did the best he could. In the end the HOA sued a company with no assets. They won nothing but spent 100K+ in attorneys fees.
The irony? The 100K exceeded what they could have fixed all the problems for! Spent 100K to sue for about 60K in problems.
Best part: Builder showed up in court with his tax records, he lost money on the project. Judge looked at the HOA president and asked if you really thought he cut corners to make money?
I find it odd that you have a leaking basement and your main concern is them messing up your yard... I would be thinking about mold growth and other nasty stuff happening with the actual leak.
Maybe ask the builder to buy the house back to make you whole, and go buy another one.
Though I can't imagine this working, it would be worth a try.
Tell him that three years worth of trying to solve the problem is enough. You are ready to move on.
Ge can then dig up the yard to his heart's content, fix the problem, and sell it.
I think you should talk to a real estate attorney who specializes in homeowner suits against builders AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Some states have time limits from when you first noticed an issue. A big red flag should have gone up as soon as you found out the builder did not install the drain you say was required by code. What else had that builder not complied with? And I would have been on the back of the code enforcement agency too (i.e., city/county). A real estate attorney can go over your options, and the smart ones have experience and might flag other potential problems to you (e.g., you might have settlement issues arise). And how is the water getting into your basement in the first place? Most basements are a monolithic concrete placement (in other words, a single placement with no gaps). Sounds like your basement foundation and/or walls have cracks. And in area with high water tables and/or lots of surface water, why didn't the contractor seal the outside of your basement with waterproofing (e.g., asphalt)?
I am just getting desperate as far as having to wait for the next rain and crossing my fingers while at work . I Agree they are working on fixing the problem and there is no solid ground to sue them .... but I guess I wanted to hear your opinions so thank you
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook
Right now you've got a builder who is apparently going to great lengths, repeatedly, to fix it.
Suing tends to kill any remaining good will.
Quote:
Originally Posted by City Guy997S
I was involved in a lawsuit against a builder led by and over hyped HOA president. Builder was a nice guy, yeah things could have been done better but he did the best he could. In the end the HOA sued a company with no assets. They won nothing but spent 100K+ in attorneys fees.
The irony? The 100K exceeded what they could have fixed all the problems for! Spent 100K to sue for about 60K in problems.
Best part: Builder showed up in court with his tax records, he lost money on the project. Judge looked at the HOA president and asked if you really thought he cut corners to make money?
The "desperation" is understandable. Fact is there are generally very well known ways to ensure that ANY BASEMENT IS COMPLETELY WATERPROOF NO MATTER WHAT THE SOIL CONDITIONS are, or how much it rains.
An exterior perimeter drain system with interior sump pit(s) and pumps is the GOLD STANDARD and done properly will keep basement DRY in any situation. The OP needs to continue to stress to the builder that they appreciate the efforts and want things FIXED RIGHT. To get that accomplished I would NOT attempt to bring a lawsuit, fact is MANY wily builders absolutely can make it look like they are flat broke when taken to court.
I know the people that run this business in the Chicago area and they have a good reputation for not trying to "sugar coat" problems. Sometimes there are MULTIPLE issues. Fixing leaks around cracks / joints / penetrations can be VERY INEXPENSIVE and done with modern materials that a skilled technician can do in just a few minutes but issues like an improperly installed perimeter drain system / bad sump pump and messy and can take days / weeks of work -- https://www.uswaterproofing.com/serv...-waterproofing If you are able to get the BUILDER to pinpoint the problem and honestly continue to work for a solution that is much better than filing suit or trying to get them to "buy it back"...
If you sue, the judge is going to need you to prove that the builder was negligent. In order to show they were negligent, you have to prove that they knew there was a water problem, or that they should have known, and did not follow normal procedures for that situation. You say there was supposed to be a drain put in when the house was built and it didn't happen, so maybe, in your situation, that is true. Most houses do not have a drain built in the yard when there is no known problem, so if there was supposed to be one, then maybe there was a known water issue. If so, I would ask for recompense for the inconvenience of them not following code or not complying with the contract (whichever stipulated the drain that didn't get installed). If you just meant that "in your opinion", there should have been a drain installed when the house was built, then you have no grounds for any compensation.
My parents actually had a house they built that was like this. They never did figure out why. The grading on the lot was correct, and it was actually the house at the top of a hill, so no neighbor's sprinklers could run into his yard to flood him, and he was WELL above the water table, but the crawl space kept flooding, even with the sprinklers turned off. Never did figure it out, but a french drain in the yard ultimately fixed the problem. But there was no negligence. No one else in the subdivision had ever experienced any flooding, and his was the LEAST likely to, so there was no reason to expect a problem. There was no city code to put in a drain, the city planners approved the project with no drainage issues known and there wasn't any drain in the contract. My parents had built several other houses, further down the hill, in the same subdivision, that never had any problems. My parents actually DID offer to buy the house back, so they could just deal with the problem without having to deal with the guy, who was a jerk about the whole thing. He refused to sell it.
I was told just yesterday that the perimeter drain was not done correctly while they had to do it again on the first year . They had a drain cross the basement room where the leak is , a drain that they put under the concrete tarter cutting it. Three years later they decide to redo the perimeter drain “the proper way” at least that is what I was told just yesterday
The basement is finished except for that room were the water leaks
As far as the mold test it was a air mold test. It was done by a company called remedics
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How to get things done right!!!
