QUESTION
Had successful work done by a local contractor. Last job, however, was the installation of pavers in the driveway, which resulted in water in basemen
Asked on Dec 30th, 2011 on Construction Law - New York
More details to this question:
They were supposed to include drains in the pavers,to offset water runoff but the contractor''''s brother took over the job without my approval and decided drains were not necessary. They were. Since then they have been cutting up the pavers to continually add more and more drains. Somewhere along the line, the must have disrupted the foundation or something because now I have constant water inthe basement in one particular area. This constractor had very successfully done alot of work at my house and is well aware that this problem did not occur until the concrete that he, himself, put down was broken up with machinery and the new pavers were installed. They have made several attempts to solve the problem but they cannot find it and will no longer respond to any of my calls or texts. I did not hire, plan or pay the brother who took over the job. I paid the original guy who, with his very experienced father, had done all previous work with no problem. I don''t know how to proceed
1 ANSWER
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If the contract that you entered into with the contractor provided that drains were to be installed, and if they were not installed, you would have a breach of contract claim against that contractor. If you paid the contractor the total contract price, you could recoup the cost of having the drains installed by a replacement contractor. Furthermore, if you could prove that the paver work caused the water leak into your basement, you could also recover from the hired contractor the cost of remedying that situation. You would need to hire an engineer (probably a Geotechnical engineer) to support your claim. Unless the contract prohibits it, a contractor may bring in others (like subcontractors) to perform all or part of the contract work. Therefore, your breach of contract claim would be against the contractor whom you hired, not the one who may have performed the work (i.e., the brother). However, it is possible to assert a negligence claim against the brother who performed the work if he in fact caused the leak.
This is not intended to be legal advice, and is general in its nature. No attorney-client relationship exists or is formed by this information. Furthermore, this does not represent the views or opinions of Lexis Nexis or its affiliated companies.
Ronald Francis, Esq.
www.constructionattorney.net
Answered on Jan 04th, 2012 at 1:31 PM