mach_u
03-22-2008, 12:55 PM
Here's the situation...
Saturday, Dec. 15th last year, we were getting ready to head out the door and smelled something funny. We went downstairs and discovered "funky" smelling "water" coming in, a couple inches above the carpet. We immediately called City Sewer and they came out, ran snakes through the lines out to the street but couldn't get it clear. They informed us they then had to send a TV crew out to scope the lines the next day, meanwhile Rachel and I spent all night manning 3 different sump pumps to stop things from getting worse and ruining everything in the basement - plus at this point we were not even sure who's problem it was and MSD was suggesting it could be our problem to deal with. When they showed up Sunday afternoon the crew informed us that our main sewer tap to the street was completely lined over. Turns out this company, Instituform is hired by the city to re-line all the main sewer pipes and the morons lined completely over our sewer tap. Fast forward to Dec. 15th and our "funky water" is now backing up into the house. Due to the obvious, admitted fault, the city sends out a clean up crew, rips out all of the carpet, cuts out the walls and leaves our once finished basement, unfinished. They then leave us hanging for a couple of weeks while instituform and the city battle out over who's fault it is. Instituform's for lining over the tap, or the city's for not having an accurate record of where our tap should be located. Finally the city admits fault and gives us the forms we need to file our claim BUT only after we agreed to claim our maximum basement backup coverage with OUR insurance(which our insurance claims agent wrote out on the spot AND waved our deductible due to excessive loss above the policy). The claim goes out Jan. 11th to the city. We were informed that the process would take 60 days to turn around - a little excessive, but oh well, right? Two weeks later we get a letter in the mail stating that our claim was received and would be processed. Since that time and up until today we have never received any calls/letters from the city, except for return calls(and usually only after two or three voicemails) to the ones I have made - telling me to be patient and we will have our answer within the 60 days alloted. :rolleyes:
Well we hit the 60 day mark a week and a half ago and after still not hearing anything I called the bitch at the city we have been dealing with, who politely informed me it had not been 60 days yet(in what universe???) and there would be a form mailed out this last Monday with the information we needed to proceed. She was extremely vague and would not give any more information than that. Finally today we received a letter in the mail (postmarked yesterday - obviously she lied about that...) in which the city has denied our claim and informed us that fault lay solely with Instituform(who the city hired) and the city would not be taking responsibility. To say I am frustrated beyond any form of comprehension is an understatement. We have tried to be completely civil with the city and even played along with their exorbitant amount time they requested to file our claim but this is ridiculous!!! We are now back to square one and have nothing to show for it. I am tired of playing along with the city's requests and need to find a GOOD lawyer that can take the city to task over this. We never asked for any of this and we have zero fault in this matter. It's purely the negligence of the city, city employees and the company they had contracted to do the work. Anybody that can suggest a good lawyer, shoot me a PM or post up. Thanks a bunch!
Saturday, Dec. 15th last year, we were getting ready to head out the door and smelled something funny. We went downstairs and discovered "funky" smelling "water" coming in, a couple inches above the carpet. We immediately called City Sewer and they came out, ran snakes through the lines out to the street but couldn't get it clear. They informed us they then had to send a TV crew out to scope the lines the next day, meanwhile Rachel and I spent all night manning 3 different sump pumps to stop things from getting worse and ruining everything in the basement - plus at this point we were not even sure who's problem it was and MSD was suggesting it could be our problem to deal with. When they showed up Sunday afternoon the crew informed us that our main sewer tap to the street was completely lined over. Turns out this company, Instituform is hired by the city to re-line all the main sewer pipes and the morons lined completely over our sewer tap. Fast forward to Dec. 15th and our "funky water" is now backing up into the house. Due to the obvious, admitted fault, the city sends out a clean up crew, rips out all of the carpet, cuts out the walls and leaves our once finished basement, unfinished. They then leave us hanging for a couple of weeks while instituform and the city battle out over who's fault it is. Instituform's for lining over the tap, or the city's for not having an accurate record of where our tap should be located. Finally the city admits fault and gives us the forms we need to file our claim BUT only after we agreed to claim our maximum basement backup coverage with OUR insurance(which our insurance claims agent wrote out on the spot AND waved our deductible due to excessive loss above the policy). The claim goes out Jan. 11th to the city. We were informed that the process would take 60 days to turn around - a little excessive, but oh well, right? Two weeks later we get a letter in the mail stating that our claim was received and would be processed. Since that time and up until today we have never received any calls/letters from the city, except for return calls(and usually only after two or three voicemails) to the ones I have made - telling me to be patient and we will have our answer within the 60 days alloted. :rolleyes:
Well we hit the 60 day mark a week and a half ago and after still not hearing anything I called the bitch at the city we have been dealing with, who politely informed me it had not been 60 days yet(in what universe???) and there would be a form mailed out this last Monday with the information we needed to proceed. She was extremely vague and would not give any more information than that. Finally today we received a letter in the mail (postmarked yesterday - obviously she lied about that...) in which the city has denied our claim and informed us that fault lay solely with Instituform(who the city hired) and the city would not be taking responsibility. To say I am frustrated beyond any form of comprehension is an understatement. We have tried to be completely civil with the city and even played along with their exorbitant amount time they requested to file our claim but this is ridiculous!!! We are now back to square one and have nothing to show for it. I am tired of playing along with the city's requests and need to find a GOOD lawyer that can take the city to task over this. We never asked for any of this and we have zero fault in this matter. It's purely the negligence of the city, city employees and the company they had contracted to do the work. Anybody that can suggest a good lawyer, shoot me a PM or post up. Thanks a bunch!