We rent a home from my in laws, that has an additional basement apartment they rent out. They bought the home a little over 5 years ago and have had an enormous amount of issues. The previous owner did a lot of DIY work on the house including digging drainage (that turned out to be done completely incorrectly), refinishing the basement and refurbing a lot of rooms in our home (extremely shoddy work).
Several times over the years his poor (and seemingly illegally performed) work has resulted in issues which the insurance company went after him for in the tune of several hundred thousand NOK. The drainage, the sewage system, and several other not to code issues resulted in lawsuits against him (which they won and had fixed.)
This year, on the 24th, a leak was discovered in the basement apartment. The entire flat had to be torn up, walls, flooring, pipes. We haven’t had water in our kitchen through this period either. Because of the ferie timing and recent flooding in our area resulting in backlogs, we just managed yesterday to get the inspection done and begin work on fixing the pipes.
Initially, the plumber said he (previous owner) had just picked the cheapest shit he could find and it just gave out – that anyone who knew anything could have expected this. However today they discovered what appears to be a meddled with pipe that caused the leak over several years. There has been heavy insinuation that this could *only* be intentional, and pure sabotage. The pipe has clear signs of having been sawed to cause a leak.
My in laws were told expecting to have this covered by insurance, but because this looks like intentional sabotage that was present before they bought the house and got insurance, insurance is refusing any claim. The out of pocket expense to fix this will be upwards of 100.000 NOK
They are lost and don’t know what to do, it’s an incredible expense for them and is coming at a really bad time, on top of now needing to stop renting the apartment potentially for months (and now not being covered for that either due to the source of the issue).
I’m finding it hard to believe this could happen this way and he could be “getting away” with this just because the 5 years after purchase has past.
Any advice is well appreciated, and I’m including a picture of the “sabotaged” pipe (to be specific, insurance claims that because this was clearly intentionally inflicted damage that occurred before they bought the house that it is not covered – if it had been an unintentional leak that had happened or a burst or faulty pipe everything would have been covered.)
by Fjallagrasi
5 comments
If I remember correctly, problems can be reported and filed towards previous owner upto 6 months after purchase of the home. But I doubt anyone on Reddit can help you out, try getting in touch with a homeowner assisiation or a lawyer, they are better suited to answer these sort of things.
There may be a chance that the five year limit to report issues is extended if you can prove that this was intentional. Check with a lawyer or other professional
This is really more for a lawyer to answer, maybe the insurance of your in-laws have legal assistance with a couple of lawyer time paid for and they could see into that. I would say that, though, it will be very unlikely to be able approval malicious intend so long after the fact and in this situation. It may possible to win such a case in a civil court, using experts and so on but the chances are very small to be honest.
What would be the motive behind sabotage on your own property, and running the risk of legal consequences? I don’t follow at all. What is there to gain?
Deliberately causing damage to someone’s property is a serious crime. Based upon what you wrote it looks like he tried to damage his ex’s house and knew that she intended to sell. If you have good evidence that the pipe was sabotaged you should contact the police. Of course proving guilt may be difficult in a case like this, but it’s not your role to decide whether to take a case forward.