Question
What is the name of your state? Beautiful state of Washington
I have lived in the State of Washington for about 1.5 years now and I noticed last summer that my back yard was getting a lot excess water accumulated in it. My first thinking was that I had a leak my sprinkler system and I called sprinkler company to check the situation out. While they did find some leaky valves and fixed the problem they told me it was no way that those leaky valves could cause all that excess water. And it was possible that ground water was causing it. Plus just moving to Washington State from Oklahoma I was led to believe that it was just part of climate – the rainy season.
This situation has caused me great concern for over 1 year now as my back yard is basically unusable because it is like one great big mud pit. Currently there is a lot of moss growing in the backyard which is destroying the grass. Plus I am starting to get a lot of water-type of vegetation growing in the backyard. We have been very unhappy with the backyard but neither I nor the experts could find out the cause until...we had a great big snow storm here and there was an area that the snow melted much quicker than the other areas. Because of the excess moisture in the ground I now see a stream of water coming from the underground and it is running along down the hill into my back yard.
I was so relieved that I found my trouble and I called the water company to come to verify the water leak. He came by but the only problem is that it is coming from a neighbor’s leak. We verified this by looking at his meter and it was spinning around and around while the water was leaking out. The water company left a message to the home owner about the leak but the owner of the property has not contacted me. To complicate the issue he purchased the house about 6 months ago.
Please note these are $750,000 houses and the landscape has been ruined in the back yard because of this water leakage was not cause by my own leak I believe I should be compensated for my losses. And here are my legal questions:
1) What type of attorney would handle this type of situation?
2) Should I be compensated for the damage to my landscape?
3) Since the leak is on his property what recourse do I have if he is not motivated to fix the problem?
4) Since he was not the original owner of the property in which this problem started to occur would he be libel?
5) I would appreciate any other legal insight concerning this problem.
Thanks in Advance,
Wet in Redmond, Washington - Charles
Answer
My response:
Where is your homeowner's insurance company?
IAAL
Answer
So, are you saying that I should get my home owner's insurance company involved in this? I can see this if the leak was my leak to begin with? Please explain your logic.
Thanks,
Charles
Answer
Originally posted by calvis
So, are you saying that I should get my home owner's insurance company involved in this? I can see this if the leak was my leak to begin with? Please explain your logic.
Thanks,
Charles
My response:
The water drainage is on your property. Your property also belongs to your mortgagor. You and your mortgagor are "loss payees" and you and your mortgagor have "insurable interests" in the property.
Therefore, it is your insurance company's obligation to pay for the repair of your property - - provided you have coverage for the type of losses you are currently suffering. If you are covered, then your neighbor is going to have to answer to your insurance company.
So, yes, call your insurance company and report the claim. See if you're covered for this type of loss and, if you are, sit back and let them take care of matters.
IAAL
Answer
Thanks for the clarifying.
OK, I understand where you are coming from. However, I would hate to bring in my insurance company because:
1) I don't want to give my insurance company any reason to raise my rates.
2) I don't want to give them any reason why they should deny coverage next year. (ie they lump all water claims in a high risk category with black mold)
3) Even though I yet pull out the policy there might be good possiblity that landscape claims are not accepted.
When it comes to insurance I basically come from the school: only file claims for catastrophic issues.
Answer
My response:
Okay, do what you want. It's your yard and your mud pool. Hey, who knows, it could be very therapeutic!
IAAL