[cmsgop]

Thank You Once Again

[Atlas Sneezed]

Call your insurance company and ask them. If not covered, hire a lawyer.

[PAR35]

You need to talk to a lawyer, not an insurance agent.

[Chode]

do you have some kind of easement or something???

[faq]

Find out who your neighbor hired to cut down the trees. Call and tell them about the damage because they need to report a liability claim to their insurance carrier.

[ontap]

If you contact your insurance company they will probably contact him to get his insurance to cover it. If he has no insurance then they will probably have to fix it. Maybe!!! One never knows what a lawyer or insurance co. will do.

[The South Texan]

Send your Dogs to go poop in his yard and you’ll be even.

[cmsgop]

See the predicament I am in?, Do I call a Lawyer or the Insureance Agent?

[Nachum]

My Drainfeild is on my neighbors land across the street

Questions: Why is it on someone else's property?
Does your neighbor know that it belongs to you? Did you specifically ask that this be included in your policy?
Does your insurance company know that it is on property that does not belong to you? Does your policy specifically cover or exclude this item?
Did you describe this to your agent when purchasing coverage?

I have sold homeowners policies and do not regularly see coverage for things that are not part of your home, built on another's property. Extended coverage usually refers to personal property or to separate structures on the insured property.

You must contact your agent and also an attorney for advise on this. It may be that in your state, there is coverage for this built into the standard policy, but without asking, you will not know.

Good luck with this.

[dragnet2]

Talk to your neighbor if your not enemies with him. Try to resolve without dragging outsiders into the mix. If you do this, be firm, but neighborly. Be truth with him and see how he responds. You might be surprised, something could be worked out.

If not, you can always go to an attorney.

[Drango]

Burn down the Danish embassy.

Back of the envelope, what kind of damages are we talking here?

[Publius6961]

Not a lawyer, but if you have an easement, he should be talking to HIS insurance company.

[cmsgop]

BTW I took Pics of All the Damage, as a FReeper should always do

[yooper]

If you have an easement, you (or your attorney, who I highly recommend you get involved) need to check for language in the lease describing specific actions the the lease-grantor (your neighbor) is prohibited from engaging in. My hope for you is that the lease was granted based upon the presence of your septic system. If it was the language should prescribe protection of your septic system from mechanical intrusions such as the one you describe.

The bad news is that this is going to cost you some money up front, which you can sue to recover if you're protected by the language I alluded to. The worse news is that you're probably still flushing your toilet and emptying your dishwater into a system that is no longer functional. This could lead to a sewage back-up into your basement or crawl space.

What you need to do ASAP is get a contractor in there and install a back flow preventer into your sewage outlet (the pipe which leaves your house). This will stop anything from backing up into your house; however, once it is engaged you will immediately notice flush failures etc. once the pipe in your house fills up, IF the pipe outside your house has filled up due to a septic system failure. You may need to start using a toilet elsewhere until your system is repaired.

Now, here's what you need to do immediately: (1) get the back flow valve installed ASAP, and have the contractor build you a new septic system ON YOUR PROPERTY, if possible. You will again need to pay for this up front, and its a significant expense. Go down to your local lender, explain what's going on, and you shouldn't have any trouble getting a loan. Again, you can go after your neighbor for these costs later. (2) Send your neighbor a certified letter explaining the situation and the fact that you're holding his actions responsible for what happened to your septic system. Do this tomorrow morning. (3) Go out to your neighbor's property tomorrow morning and take LOTS of pictures. These will come in handy down the road if you wind up in court. (4) Video your basement for pre-existing conditions in case sewage backs up into it and ruins your possessions. Pay particular attention to anything of value, and remove said possessions to a safe place if you can. If you successfully remove something, note it on paper and NEVER try to claim anything you rescue if an insurance claim becomes necessary.

This sucks, but if you do the foot work now you will come out OK once everything shakes out.

Lastly, if you wind up rebuilding the septic system on your neighbor's property, don't accept an easement unless you absolutely have to. Buy the land and your troubles are over. Renew the lease and you may be dealing with this issue again down the road, especially if someone else buys your neighbor's property and hasn't done his homework on encumberances.

Good luck!

[Mamzelle]

I've followed this thread for its nuts n bolts--FR threads of this type are always informative. You don't mention what kind of a relationship you have with your neighbors.

If this happened with mine, I'm pretty sure the homeowner would get a buddy who knows a buddy to get the pipe fixed without need of lawyering up.

Had he forgotten about the drain field? Over time, that's be easy to forget.

It's good to have a lawyer give you advice. But neighbors never like getting letters from neighbor's lawyers. Maybe you can retrieve the situation without one.