Can I Hold My Neighbor Liable for My Damaged Driveway?


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My home is detached single family home in Queens, NYC and my side is sharing with my neighbor’s driveway. Three months ago, they repaved the driveway and the cement platform was removed from the soil. However, when they repaved the driveway, they put the wood between the pavement and my foundation and they did not cover with cement to that and it was around 1 inch gap happened and it was exposed to soil level. I did not notice it until this winter because they put all snow piled to my house side and those snow melt make the water leaking to my foundation through the soil gap. What should I do? I talked to them and they said it was my portion or my foundation was not good etc. Before they repaved the driveway, the whole drive way was covered with cement block and thus, there was not water leakage problem.Thanks a lot.

My first guess is that this is a problem for a contractor, and not necessarily a lawyer. If you have a licensed contractor (or two or three) give you an opinion that this problem was caused by what your neighbor did, then your legal position-to have them pay for the damage and/or repairs-is pretty good.