Manufacturer material warranty period? Once they figure out they are opposite their supplier they may change. If the supplier is same and material is under warranty. List them both and let court assign blame?
Read your original contract carefully. There may be some sort of warranty or at least an implied one.
Not a fan of the equipment failure route. That is a total lie. They cracked a simple plastic cap. Nothing failed. They broke it.
Is the company which made the mistake a member of the BBB? I recall handling a mediation involving a BBB complaint once, and I got the sense that the company - which had a A or A+ rating - did not want its BBB rating tarnished, so they just paid it out pre-suit. You might also look at potential options under the DBPR (or the equivalent where you live), though I'm not sure if the company has to be licensed to do the work they were doing. But those kind of pressure points can be useful before pulling the trigger on a lawsuit.
My non-legal advice (which mirrors what others have said) is document everything you can. Do you have any before pictures? In a he said/he said case, you want to bolster your credibility as much as possible with documentation. And as other posters have said, if you have anybody who can offer a second opinion (in writing) on the cause of the failure, that'll help too. They may just end up settling to avoid having to deal with the issue once you file the lawsuit, but it helps to be prepared just in case.
Did you pay for anything when the first guy came out? Is there any work order information on the bill/receipt? Nothing like "tightened cap" on there for a summary of work done? Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
It’s a good 1. Told it before. Stay for the punchline. Was home in Jax in feb of my freshman year. Went out with old HS friends. Was looking forward to raiding the fridge but my buddy wanted to stop at Krystal’s on Cassett ave. Those rest have the men’s room outside. Went through drive in & my friend then parked. I went to the men’s room. There was a cop car parked right in front of the door. Peed, washed my hands & pushed in on the soap dispenser. It fell into the sink. I saw that it had duct tape on the back. Cop burst in, threw against his car, frisked me & read me my rights. I’m cuffed in the car when the manager - to his credit - asked what was up. Cop told him that had he not busted in when he did I would have torn the place up. Went & spent the night in jail. Got a lawyer. He advised being contrite & pleading no contest. Said the judge would back the cop. Got fined & 6 months probation. punchline. Got liquored up in gville about a month later & me & a roommate decided to drive to Jax. I went in that Krystal’s BR & ripped the soap dispenser off the wall. I proudly mounted it on several gville apt walls. I did the time so I decided to do the crime! my dad’s take on this grave injustice was, well it makes up for all the times you broke the law & didn’t get caught. Within a year my dad got thrown in jail & he called at like 2am. I told him see you in the morning & unplugged the phone. He was waving a gun around in the front yard & bitching that the cops sucked. His bidness had been robbed earlier in the day
You likely will need a 3rd party to validate your assertion that the cap they cracked caused the flooding and damage. (Not sure how clear that is based on what I read ). The BBB complaint may be a go initial route if they care.. At any rate if you have corroborated evidence of the conversation where they admitted they broke the cap it will help. They may or may not lie about breaking it however. Good luck I’ve had to deal with crap like this and often the legal route doesn’t always work out the way it should. Many of these guys will just say screw it if you win and get a judgment as often it’s hard to collect.
Always read the fine print. When I had my house fire 4 years ago I scoured the details and coverages. They declared it a total loss so I got policy limits on coverage A. Due to big hikes in building costs the coverage was not going to be enough to rebuild(we even went smaller). Lucky I had L&O coverage to help make up the difference it wasn’t until I brought up the additional coverage and asked very pointed questions about how to access that did they even discuss it. Same with extra coverage for demolition and debris removal if my cost to rebuild was above coverage A limits. They pretty much started with uhh I’m not sure how you access it. They would have been more than happy to keep the extra $130k they ended up paying me.
Get a reputable plumber/expert to take stock and give opinion. If he agrees with you, it is essential he come to court with you to testify.
I can try. But, why would they do this? I am more than happy to pay, but that seems shady too. thank you!
It will be tough. When I had an issue with my LVP floors I had to hire an outside expert to decide if it was product failure or installation failure. Same was true when I had a big miss on a termite inspection on the first house I ever bought. Learned quite a bit about termites in that deal.
Respect for their business, or even just an objective industry assessment. I think the bigger challenge is attaching the bad act to the company that did it. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
Because company you sue will have their plumber there saying it was defect, not his negligence. You need to have an unbiased and REPUTABLE plumber to contradict that. I don't see what's "shady" about that.
Sorry doc. This stinks. Going to be a tough one without a guaranteed fair outcome for you. Unless you can prove the tech admitted to breaking it. I know you said he admitted to it. But can he deny it in court? Or do you have it in writing or on a voicemail him/her saying they broke it? It took about 5 years for me to get through a Civil Theft case. I finally got triple damages plus interest and and all costs for fighting it covered. But I also probably would have let it go had I not known the guy had 40 acres. I was able to figure out there was enough equity to make it worth the fight. I think this company has the ability to pay. And hope you can be made whole.
Had the sheriffs office serve them last week (court date = 11/15). They folded like a cheap suit & are gonna pay in full. Thanks everyone for the great advice.
I'm late to the party. So i'm going to roll in and give you advice like i'm some kind of genius, which is: As you found out and others suggested, the mere filing usually solves your problem.
