What Goes Crash, Boom, Smash, Clunk?
 

Nope, not the economy or the stock market:

It's my neighbor's 78 year old father as he drives his Crown Vic through my front wall, misses my house by 3 feet, takes out my fountain, misses my son's 4 week old Audi by 18" drives off my property and proceeds to smash into the curb across the street at 7:30 in the morning! He apparently thought he was applying the brake, but was pressing HARD on the gas pedal.

The good news: No one was hurt.

The bad news: Farmer's insurance (his) states they will only pay for 1/2 the cost of my wall. Farmer's claims it is a "shared wall". It is not.

The neighbor (whose father plowed through my wall) rents so, they don't have the same concern I do. I have seen their landlord 2x in 10 years, and I would like to keep this low key to avoid any undue strain on our friendship.

What is a ball park figure to rebuild a simple cinder block wall that is 3'x30'?

Mike

Oregon has a law where you can report a geezer and make them get re-tested for driving skills.

Somebody will probably report me in 20 or 30 years. Until then, .... zooooom.

Funny how an Audi got involved....

The Ins. Co. will screw you unless you fight enough to make it cheaper to pay it. Saying an Ins. Co. will not screw over people is like saying a rattlesnake will not bite. On rare occasions it is true, but they are never rare enough.

Get the agent's supervisor's name and also ask "oh, BTW, do you happen to know the address for the State Ins. Commission? No, well that's Ok, I'll look it up."

Then file a complaint.

IF your cost exceeds 10k then it is worth getting an attorney. You can bet the Ins. Co. has their own hired guns. You need one too.

The best attorney will have a business card with a pit bull on it, and the pit bull will be wearing a spiked collar. His name will be Vinny or Luigi and he will have some relatives he can call if the law is - ah - "working too slow."

You can also mention to your neighbor that his ins. co. is not being cooperative. Tell him you'd like to remain friends but you'll have to "sue his ass until his ears bleed" or his Dad's, if they don't pay up. If HE knows his Dad had trouble driving then HE is negligent (arguably). Emphasize that you don't want to do this, but have to b/c of pressure from - name a relative you hate.

I'm pretty sure your homeowner's policy covers your property.

As long as you don't mind paying higher premiums for the sake of friendship.

Possible DIY? Or, you might call a couple swimming pool companies. Their crews/subs tear down and replace block walls constantly when installing pools.

Thanks guys for your responses. I did contact my Home Owner's insurance. Their slogan is something about "good hands." Well, I currently enjoy a 15% rate discount because we have never made a claim. That goes away as soon as I ask them to handle things...

So, I really am considering getting a super high estimate and then doing the work my self.

I have been pretty passive so far because it was the neighbor's father and I like them. But, when I thought about it today, I realized their Insurance Co (Farmer's) is trying to hose me because the neighbor's are renters. They know the neighbor won't be making a claim. That information was no doubt given to them early on when the insured made his report.

The final little pisser for me was that the daughter-in-law has been the contact for me. She came to my door and stated "I will handle this." When she contacted me by phone Thursday I answered "Hello" and she said "This is attorney Rhonda ... I wanted you to know that Farmer's Insurance will contact you." What a bull**** thing to do when I have shown only concern for her father-in-law. This was not a business call so why should I give a crap if she is an attorney!

I am feeling a little angry.

Mike

3 x 30? That should be approx. 100 blocks, right? Likely the slab for the wall is undamaged so the job shouldn't be more than a few hundred. I'd think $300 to $400?

Momo, I've been thinking about your thread and the insurer's position that they only have to pay to repair half of it since it's a shared wall. Regardless of whether it's a shared wall or not, their position is so bizare thatd I've been trying to put my finger on exactly what about it that is so wrong.

This is why their position fails as a question of logic, let alone the law. The whole wall was knocked down by the insured. Who owns the wall is irrelevant. The insurance company owes the replacement cost to replace the whole wall. Whether they have to rebuild the wall to benefit you 50% and your neighbor 50% makes no difference. The fact is that the insured knocked down a single, undivided wall and he has to pay to rebuild the whole thing, regardless of who benefits.

Put it to the insurer this way: If they pay for only half the wall, are they paying for the damage to your half of the wall or his? Of course they will tell you that they are paying for your half. Great, you respond. But to get the wall rebuilt, I still need to pay the other half. That means that under your scheme I pay for the neighbor's half and you pay for my half. Why should I have to pay for my neighbor's damages when it was his father (your insured) who drove through the wall? They owe the cost to repair both halves, and you are not to be out of pocket anything, since you did not contribute to causing the damage. So as a matter of logic, they are wrong.

As a matter of law, they are also wrong. Tell them that if they still think the wall was shared property, the rule is that when there is an undivided 1/2 interest in common property, and there is damage to that property that destroys one party's use and enjoyment of the property, the at fault party has to repair the entire structure, because the interest in the property is undivided (that is, you have the right to use the entire wall, but you have a 50% interest in it). An undivided half interest is like if you owned a cabin with a buddy. You own half, he owns half, but you both use the whole thing.

Thier offer to pay for only the damage to the 50% interest they think you own is the measure of damages only when you have a divided 50% interest in property. A divided one-half interest is when you share something with another party, but there's a line down the middle so you use only half of it and they use the other half. This would be like owning a duplex with someone. You're both on the title for the whole property, but he has the right to use only his half, and you use the other unit.

Cindy turned her mom in for retesting...I don't think the old gal ever forgave her.

However, it was the right thing to do...

You can report him at the DMV as someone that's not fit to drive. I had done this to an old high school teacher as he was a real A$$ hole to me. No questions ask. He will have to prove it to them that he's fit to drive, I think.

As for your wall, it is about 65-75 bucks a lin' to rebuilt. That does not include demo and rubbish hauling. Add another $400 for a low boy dumpster (Make sure its enough to hold all of the block that to be thrown away. do not overfill and have other junk in it or else they will not haul it away. How long is your wall?) The insurance has this bull $hit formula. I don't know how they come up with it. A buddy had his block wall broken by a bull dozer of another contractor who's building in the lot next door in the city of Arcadia. I help him write a high bid that includs flowers and sprinkers. the claims adj laughed at it. He didn't get squad. They only paid him for the half of what the wall would cost just like yours. The contractor said he didn't know anything about it. It like a car accident, everyone looses.

Tell them your half of the wall was the top half and that they'll have to rebuild the bottom half to be able to rebuild yours.

Just repeating what the others have said. As soon at the daughter mentioned she was an attorney, I would have quit trying to be a nice guy.

Don't necessarily get angry with her for identifying herself as an attorney. There is a rule that says that attorneys have to identify themselves as attorneys when they deal with unrepresented parties. So she might have been doing it because she was trying to intimidate you, but she might have been doing it because she was following the rule.

The bottom line is that you are owed a new wall. The neighbor did the right thing by turning it over to their insurer, but they owe you a new wall, one way or the other. There is no legal or factual defense to this. The attorney should recognize this immediately. If the insurance company doesn't pony up pretty darn quick, call the attorney daughter back up and tell her she needs to use her legal skills with her insurer to make sure she (her father) is being protected, because if the insurer doesn't pay for the wall, you will look to him for full recovery.

What's she going to say in response? Sorry, my dad was only 80% at fault for driving into your wall, you're going to have to pay 20%?

I like the argument that your half of the wall was the top half. That ought to start them thinking.

For what it's worth, Farmers is notorious for lowballing claimants and poorly educated adjusters. Their company is owned by Zurich Insurance Company, and Farmers has been bleeding money for years. Periodically there is talk of shutting them down. The only thing you can do with them is be persistent and firm. They will eventually back down.