Ask Curbed: Can I Get 'Renovation Reparations'?

1.

Let the useless and unresponsive commentary begin!

2.

Bing I think i deserve some compensation for disruption, damage, and construction worker traffic that is involved with living so close to your butthole. Give a taint a break.

3.

Uh, no.

You get squat.

The city enforces the law and the local law says if the building is over 6 floors and its falling down, the owner has to fix it. no matter what.

You have no choice.

You can sue the city, as much as you want.
Oh, and I highly recommend that.
ha

you cannot sue the building for this.

Unless they do something obviously wrong.

but killing plants is not one of them.

4.

Who cares about the environment, right?

5.

You really should contact an attorney and see if you can get an agreement signed between you and your neighbor (i believe this would be a type of easement, but I'm not sure). Even if he is required to repair his building, there is no reason he can't agree to try to protect your garden and pay to repair it if protecting it doesn't work.

6.

you deserve to have your quality of life ruined for posting such a stupid question. get a lawyer and work something out w/ them amicably, b/c if you don't, they are just going to do what they want anyway and suing them could take a million years. duh.

7.

Cait's right. You can't make money off of it but you shouldn't suffer actual damages. Make sure they provide you with copies of insurance certificates for every worker who sets foot on your property as well as waivers of liability. You need to talk to a lawyer quickly.

8.

"...that the project will take weeks..."

Why make a big fuss over a few weeks? Would you rather have a building collapse onto your garden? Give to guy a break and let him fix the building so it doesnt kill anyone. Geez.

9.

"...that the project will take weeks..."

Why make a big fuss over a few weeks? Would you rather have a building collapse onto your garden? Give the guy a break and let him fix the building so it doesnt kill anyone. Geez.

10.

I dont understand why people ask curbed commentators questions about their home. You might as well just ask, "Hey can you guys tell me how stupid I am?"

11.

Also, you did not mention if you rent or own? If you rent obviously you do not have the ability to grant any permissions, and if the landlord consents will have to go to him/her for any compensation for damage.

That being said, I do think asking for compensation for damages is entirely appropriate; "quality of life" damages is another matter. As the other posters have pointed out, having a wall collapse near your apartment will also be detrimental to your quality of life, so some flexibility is in order.

12.

#8 is right. It's kind of funny people are talking about lawyers & compensation for what will amount to a couple of weeks of work.

13.

#2, why do you complain only about the construction worker traffic around my butthole? Aren't you concerned at all about the police officer, American Indian chief, military officer, leatherman biker and cowboy traffice around my butthole? I mean, you've got the entire Village People parading around my butthole, but you're upset only about the construction worker traffic?

14.

This is the price you pay for choosing to live in this shithole city. If you owned a house anywhere else the owner would be obligated to approach you with kindness and ingratiate him or herself because they clearly are intruding upon your property and your right to peace. How about, what kind of dipshit lets their building decay to the point that the walls collapse? And if you buy a building in this condition the LEAST you should be required to do is offer compensation to the neighbor whose sanity you're fucking with "for weeks". Get a lawyer and ignore the heartless chimps who think you're out of line for suggesting that you might be entitled to common courtesy.

15.

He can't ERECT scaffold on your property without your permission (assuming you own)- he has to protect your property by law- and, if you don't give him permission, he will be forced to use swing staging and will still need to protect your property. Also, even with scaffold on your property, you can refuse access THROUGH your property- his crew will have to come down from his side...

16.

He must make best effort to protect your property by code. however, if you deny him the opportunity to protect your property, by same code, you are responsible for providing your own protection. if you do not, you are responsible for damages to your own property.

17.

I'd be surprised if it just took a few weeks. Once that scaffolding is there, who knows how long you'll have to live with it?

18.

If you own the apartment, you should be under no legal obligation to allow workers access to a neighboring building through your property. That's tresspassing, my friend!

19.

Wow - look at all the haters and their great advice. Do nothing - suck it up they say. Are these the same ones who advocate renting over buying. Do nothing, ask nothing is their philospohy.

I was in a similar situation last year. I told the owner doing the rennovations that my giving his workers access through my property would save him dollars in the overall construction - i.e. lugging bricks through his building, citing of a dumpster. He gave me $10,000 per month for 3 months and took it out of his construction loan.

I paid off my credit cards, and rented a phat place upstate with daily maid service. I got a paid for vacation outside the noicy city

dont listen to the haters - they get no where in life.

20.

This topic was covered ad nauseum on one of those other sites - I think brownstoner.

21.

nice ass advertisement on the main page