What's appropriate compensation for water damage in my home?

April 27, 2022 5:57 AM

HVAC repairman broke a water line in my attic, causing damage to my home. They are paying for all repairs, but I still would like some additional compensation for our troubles. What's appropriate to ask for?

We live in Florida. Our entire HVAC system required replacement, including the ducts. The work was supposed to take 3 days, and the cost was exorbitant (basically the cost of a new car - we had to finance the payment.) On the final day of install, the repairman broke a water pipe in the attic. Thankfully, I was home and able to shut off the water quickly. We sustained water damage to two rooms. The plumbing was fixed very quickly, and remediation crews were brought in to set up fans and dehumidifiers. There's going to be at least a 6' x 4' patch of ceiling that will need to get torn down and replaced.

While the HVAC company is covering all costs, this has turned into a massive stressor and inconvenience for us. 3 days work is now looking like 3 weeks work, we'll have a carousel of contractors coming in/out of the house, and we'll be losing wages for taking time off work to be home for said contractors.

I am going to ask the HVAC company for some compensation for our troubles. Is this appropriate? How much compensation would you ask for?

posted by gnutron to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

I am not a lawyer, but I do know a lot of lawyers and have been on the inside of a couple of businesses dealing with similar problems with vendors and services.

One thing I've picked up over the years is that most people value our own time and aggravation quite highly, family and friends' less so, and strangers' very little. This goes triple when money is involved.

Lost wages, sure. Specific additional costs, like lost wages, unplanned hotel rooms or damage to furniture, absolutely. But it is very unlikely they're going to agree to pay out any meaningful sum for "troubles" without taking them to court, and even doing so would probably cost more than you could get - and they're already covering all the costs.

I know this is... really unsatisfying. I know it's aggravating, and it's all due to their errors. But they're running a business, and from their standpoint - and probably the law's - they're doing what they're supposed to, paying full costs to make you whole. But when you get beyond that, it's highly subjective and all about what makes you feel compensated. Which will probably be a lot for you; you're very upset (I would be too!). But now it's justice, and vengeance, on subjective things. And that gets messy, fast.

In theory I bet you could get some amount of money. If you're anything like me, that amount of money is nowhere near what you really believe you've suffered, and if anything that will make you even angrier because it's "proof" that they really didn't care, because they value your time and troubles so lightly.

For you, just repairing the damage is making you whole, and you want something beyond that. For them, they screwed up, and now they're paying an enormous amount of additional money just to make the problem they caused go away. They're unhappy. You don't see that money, but trust me, they're angry that they have to deal with this. Somebody might have gotten fired over it. They are not going to want to pay out a single dollar more than they have to, because this is already a huge pain for them too. They will not pay a dollar more than they legally have to.
posted by Tomorrowful at 6:18 AM on April 27, 2022 [22 favorites]

I would ask for anything I could itemize specific costs for - so, yes to lost wages, yes to repair or similar-value replacement for any damaged items, yes to to any costs of the remediation that they aren't covering directly, yes to any costs incurred for staying elsewhere if your house was uninhabitable. I wouldn't expect to be compensated above and beyond that for the general aggravation.
posted by Stacey at 10:02 AM on April 27, 2022

You may want to check your homeowner's insurance as well, they might be able to reimburse you for some of the extra costs that the company didn't, like lost wages etc.
posted by Grither at 11:47 AM on April 27, 2022

I agree with the answers above and wanted to add that houses are just expensive and weird and shit happens. It sucks. You had major work done to your home, the cost was commensurate with that and the odds that something would go wrong or some hitherto unknown problem with your house would be discovered were significant. Pursue recovering costs you can itemize and try to remember that the HVAC folks didn’t want to damage your house and didn’t do it *at* you.
posted by momus_window at 1:16 PM on April 27, 2022

If you haven't already gotten your homeowners insurance involved, do that immediately. They have a major interest in approving the treatment and repair remedies as mold is a major issue with damage like this. If you end up with a mold or other serious issue after the repair and the insurance company was not involved in approval and inspection (depending on the level of damage), your policy could be voided if you try to make a future claim and the HVAC damage situation is uncovered. They also have lawyers who can help make sure that you receive what's fairly owed.
posted by quince at 1:26 PM on April 27, 2022

You should definitely claim for direct costs such as lost wages or anything you had to buy or have rectified. I don't see how, in all reasonableness, you are entitled to payment for 'inconvenience'.
posted by dg at 8:03 PM on April 27, 2022