Legal advice

Planning on filing in small claims court today. Only court experience is pleading no contest to vandalism & as a witness in a case where Allen Collins' daughters were the victim.

About 5 weeks ago a sprinkler company came out to fix my sys. It was making a racket (the sys itself, not internal pipes). While I was explaining the problem the tech casually took off a cap, put some plumbers tape on it & wrenched it back on. This had nothing to do with the issue. The tech then speculated that it was a ball-valve. I had him replace the 1 in question & a 2nd 1 just in case. It did nothing to address the racket. He then replaced a spring in the bell part of the sys. That reduced the racket significantly.

Three days later, I went down to my basement & it was flooded...no standing water, but soaked carpet. It affected 3 rooms. (I spent $3800 on mitigation & another $1000 or so on having the carpet padding replaced & carpet cleaned. There was no dry wall damage.)

I went to the sys & the cap that he'd tightened was spewing water. The tech had cracked it upon tightening. Called the company. They made me wait for a 2 hour window until the org tech came by. He acknowledged the issue & apologized. A manager called about 30 min later giving me a 4 hour window for a senior tech to come out. Senior tech comes out. Takes the cap off & sez this was an equip failure. I ignored it the first time. He then repeated that it was not their fault, that it was an equip failure in an obv gaslighting attempt. I said so if I go stab a knife into your truck tire, would you say that is an equip failure? He stopped trying to BS me.

They never offered anything in terms of money or sorrys, etc. They said contact your ins company & have them work it out with theirs. Their ins company called & first thing the guy sez, is so this was an equip failure right. I explained what happened & he let be known that it did not jive with what the company told him & that he'd continue to investigate. I learned today that it was denied.

So, I want to take them to small claims. Max award is $7500. Any thoughts on strategies, preparation, chances of winning etc?

thank you in advance.

 

doing it myself. to ans the Q above, the ins report I saw, only sez that their investigation revealed it was not their responsibility. I do have access to the statements they made. I suspect they pulled the same equip failure story.

 

they do & they denied. Mine will not cover water damage if the water comes from outside which it did

 

Hell yes!!
they don't even have a physical address, so cinderblock justice is not an option.

You know, despite the role I play on here, I am not an asshole. Mistakes happen. What pisses me off is their treatment ever since. They literally coulda turned this into a win. I sent exactly 2 emails & the manager told me to leave him alone.

"If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that you play that determines if it's good or bad." Miles Davis

they hit a really bad next note

 

I was braced for the denial for the reason you state.

 

prob relevant. this company installed the sys 3 or 4 years ago. so the failed quip is what they installed.