Property Damage by neighbor

[jansenj]

My fundamental question is how are property damages usually awarded? Purely monetary to the party who incurred the damage?

I have a neighbor kid who lost control of his ATV and ran into my house. His insurance won't pay the damages. I should not be liable to make a claim against my policy and affect my rates. He has agreed to fix the damage. I don't want to take this to small claims court, but he is starting to be a little unreasonable in my opinion.

I would assume I would get 2 quotes from contractors of my choice, and the court would award damages to be paid directly to me (from the neighbor) based on the smaller of the two quotes. (one of the quotes is from the builder who built my house)

The neighbor wants to use his brother to do the job and thinks he gets to pick the builder since the money is coming out of his pocket, and he thinks no matter who does the work, he gets the final say who does the work, and he would pay the builder directly, and I just get the final say when the work is completed. I don't want this to escalate since I don't want to ruin a relationship with a neighbor, but I want to know where this would go if it were to escalate. If this were to go to small claims court, would this be an open/shut case? There was no police report since the neighbor did it while we were on vacation, but there were other neighbors who witnessed the damage.

His brother wanted to start the work today without having ever generating a quote since they assume they will just pay each other. Would this fly in court as an appropriate way to restore my home?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Is the brother a licensed contractor, qualified to do this work or will you come home tonight to find the damage fixed with duct tape (a common repair item here in the south, used by many shave tail repair guys)?

 

[jansenj]

The brother works for a licensed contractor, but was planning on doing the job as a side job all by himself. He never said it in so many words, but I figured he was planning on having his brother do the work under the table, which was confirmed today by another conversation with the neighbor.

The neighbor didn't understand my desire to have a licensed contractor quote the work and do the job. "Don't you trust me?"

What information would I have to gather in order to proceed to small claims court, not that I think it will come to that, but I need to know what the legal process would be for coming up with a number to ask him pay? Would a possible outcome of small claims be for the neighbor to pay a builder directly? Would he be allowed to get a quote from a builder of his choice for a defense?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

The neighbor didn't understand my desire to have a licensed contractor quote the work and do the job. "Don't you trust me?"

What information would I have to gather in order to proceed to small claims court, not that I think it will come to that, but I need to know what the legal process would be for coming up with a number to ask him pay? Would a possible outcome of small claims be for the neighbor to pay a builder directly? Would he be allowed to get a quote from a builder of his choice for a defense?

I'd tell the neighbor that you need to have everything in writing, e.g. the agreement of what would be done, an agreement that the contractor is licensed, etc. for numerous reasons, the least of which being you could be sued if an accident happened on your property. Additionally, you'll want an agreement in place because you don't want to have the contractor put a mechanic's lien in place on work he's not paid for by his brother! Tell him to either do it 100% kosher or it's just not going to work. It's easiest to agree with your neighbor than going to small claims court, even though it seems you're prepared well enough to proceed. Good luck to you.

 

[jansenj]

Thank you for your help. For my reference, someone told him, legally, he is only liable to pay my deductible for my homeowners policy. That can't be true can it? I didn't want to push it because he sounds like he is reluctantly willing to pay over that ($1000), but its not easy to, and is resisting having to go all the way out to $1900. If I don't get an answer to this question, I'll post a separate thread since it is really a different question.