I just bought my first house but I have not moved in yet. I had several appliances including a refrigerator with ice-maker delivered and installed Thursday Feb 2. I was there but did not notice the workmen doing anything that set off red flags.
I came back to the house Friday Feb 3 in the afternoon and the entire kitchen and garage were flooded (the garage and kitchen share a wall). Water was running down the driveway and out the back wall of the house.
I called the company that installed the appliances and workmen came out within an hour. The workman said the water leak was coming from the copper pipe in the wall that the fridge ice-maker was attached to. They turned off the water supply to that pipe. However, they said that since the leak was in the house's pipe, not the fridge's pipe, they were not responsible for the water damage.
Before buying the house, I had the house inspected. The inspection report states "Water Supply System: All components were found to be performing and in satisfactory condition on the day of the inspection." So, the workmen are saying that this pipe was already broken and leaking, but the inspection report states that everything was working fine.
I had contractors come out that same day (Friday Feb 3) and they brought fans and dehumidifiers to dry up the water. Their cost was about $900. I contacted my homeowner's insurance and my deductible is $1700, so I decided not to file a claim since the total cost is less than the deductible.
I called my home warranty company, and they sent out a plumber Wednesday Feb 8. The plumber looked at the connection between the fridge and water pipe and he stated that it looks like the workman who installed the ice-maker installed it incorrectly. I don't have the vocabulary to talk about plumbing intelligently, but I believe the plumber said that the workmen did not tighten a "compression fitting"? This goes against what the workmen said about the leak being a pre-existing problem with the house's pipes. The plumber did something with a wrench, turned the water line back on, took my $75, and now my ice-maker is working and nothing is leaking.
The plumber also submitted a report to the home warranty company that stated the water damage was due to "faulty installation." The home warranty company does not cover water damage to the house itself. They said that if my appliances had gotten damaged, they would cover it, but they aren't covering the $900 I paid the contractors to dry out the walls.
TL;DR: I haven't even moved into my new house and have already had to pay $900 for water damage and $75 for a plumber. The plumber said that the water leak was the workmen's fault for installing the fridge incorrectly. The workmen said that the water damage was not their fault because the leak was coming from a house pipe, not from the fridge's water line. Is there any way I can get the $975 back? How?
I've been a homeowner for two weeks and all of this is new to me.
Submitted February 15, 2017 at 08:00AM by killingnazis1945 http://ift.tt/2kR3Qgv legaladvice
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