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July 29, 2007
real estate litigation attorneys?
Hi all,
We have recently purchased an attached brick row house. There is a leak in the back wall that seems to be comng from a secton of the rear exterior wall that desparately needs some repointing. The complication is the the repointing work needs to be done not just on our wall, but on the neighbors exterior wall as well. (The leak is coming in via the common wall in between our houses.) The next door owner doesnt live there, and wont return the calls that her tenant is making to her on our behalf. (The tenants have complained to her before about this leak, but she doesnt do anything.) She also wont respond to my calls about this. My contractor recommended that we just go ahead and do the work, even if it extends onto her wall. (Which, of course, would mean doing free work for the next door owner.) But im not sure thats a great idea, in case something goes wrong.
Any idea what the law is here? More importantly, can someone recommend a good litigation attorney to talk to about this? Many, many thanks.
Comments
stewart rothman
seligson, rothman and rothman
downtown manhattan
really excellent
Posted by: clinton hillbilly at July 29, 2007 10:44 PM
Good luck making the neighbor pay. It will cost you more time and money to fight it then just to repair.
Posted by: Anonymous at July 30, 2007 12:27 PM
Good luck making the neighbor pay. It will cost you more time and money to fight it then just to repair.
Posted by: Anonymous at July 30, 2007 12:27 PM
I wouldn't touch the neighbor's property without giving some kind of formal notice and chance to respond. Any neighbor as unresponsive as this one seems to be to damage his/her property is causing yours, may be the kind to claim uncrupulously that the work you did on his property caused damage. Make a good written record of your attempts to communicate to the owner before you do anything. Then, if the owner doesn't respond, make the repairs using someone with the appropriate license.
Posted by: Anonymous at July 30, 2007 1:24 PM
If a negligent condition of a neighbor's property is harming your property they are liable. If it presents an imminent danger to life or health (wall collapse, water damage, mold, etc.) you should proceed to repair. Take lots of pix; document everything. Forget the lawyer. Hope that this is the only problem your neighbor has that will damage you. Have you looked in the basement?
Posted by: tom at July 30, 2007 5:04 PM
Borah Goldstein or Troutman Sanders
Posted by: anon at August 1, 2007 10:11 PM
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