Dry cleaner dumping perc in backyeard adjacent to my house

[metzade]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? new york

My question involves court procedures for the state of: New York

Hello,

my house is adjacent to a drycleaner, we found out about seven years ago that this drycleaner was dumping there chemicals (perc) right into there backyard, as oppsoed to properly disposing them, fortunitly nobody got sick in our hosuehold or our neghibors, but here is the problem, my house is now on a state spill list of chemicals which in essence pops up the second a lawyer does a title search on my property, i am trying to sell my house now and this is damging my sales, the second a buyer finds out the house is on a spill list they run, i have spoken to the state which is handling all cleaning of the chemicals, they say they cannot take me off the list as of yet due to the fact that the chemical is still showing on dry cleaners proiperty, even though it is no longer on my proprty, how would i start this lawsuite and is this even a possobale for suite

[JETX]

Originally Posted by metzade

how would i start this lawsuite and is this even a possobale for suite

Not an easy or inexpensive suit. Will need LOTS of testing and expert testimony. Contact a local attorney to try to recover your 'damages' (loss of value).

[alligatorob]

JETX is right this can get complicated and expensive. I am not a lawyer but am an environmental engineer and have testified as an expert in a number of cases involving PERC contamination from drycleaners. Depending on what data is available you would probably have to spend a minimum of $10,000 on an environmental expert and maybe a lot more, I don’t know what the legal fees would be but probably a lot more. You have to prove you have contamination on your property that it has damaged you, and who is responsible for it. That last issue can become more complicated than you might think. I have seen drycleaner sites where the PERC delivery service was held liable rather than the owner, and the waste disposal company could be partially responsible as well. And all of these people may hire experts to help them point at each other. This is just one example of an issue that often gets very complicated.

If you have not already done it contact your local New York Department of Environmental Conservation office and see if you can find the person responsible for this site. They are usually helpful to innocent landowners. I don’t do much work in New York but most other states can issue some kind of “comfort letter”. This is a letter that states that the state is aware of the contamination and has determined it is not your liability and that someone else is taking care of the clean up (assuming this is true). Most states have some kind of standard form they use for this, it is a common thing. These letters can help in a property sale. They are often adaquate for most lenders.

Good luck.