Neighbor Balks at Fumigation of His Abutting Building

[douglasssmith]

I have a small 8000 sq. ft. zero lot line commercial building in Los Angeles County, California that needs to be tented for termites. My neighbor's property has a small maybe 750 sq. ft. zero lot line commercial building adjacent to mine that also needs to be tented. My termite contractor says that both buildings need to be fumigated simultaneously. If not, he says, the termites will flee my building to my neighbor's, but return after the gas is gone. He quoted $8000 to fumigate my building and $1000 to fumigate my neighbor's building. Initially my neighbor agreed to pay his part and the buildings would be fumigated at the same time. Now he is backsliding. First he wanted to split the $1000 cost for his building with me. Then he decided I should pay for his building completely since I'm the one who initiated the project.

Questions:
1. How are situations like this typically handled?
2. What should I do?
3. Can I force him to fumigate his building at his expense?
4. If I fumigate his building at my expense is a lawsuit to recover his "unjust enrichment" reasonable or a non-starter?
5. If he refuses to allow my termite guy to fumigate his building even at my expenses can I force him to do provide access?

I realize that I'm on shaky ground when I mention forcing him to do anything. But if his building was full of rats that were coming into my building I would have remedies, right? Isn't this similar?

 

[Ohiogal]

I have a small 8000 sq. ft. zero lot line commercial building in Los Angeles County, California that needs to be tented for termites. My neighbor's property has a small maybe 750 sq. ft. zero lot line commercial building adjacent to mine that also needs to be tented. My termite contractor says that both buildings need to be fumigated simultaneously. If not, he says, the termites will flee my building to my neighbor's, but return after the gas is gone. He quoted $8000 to fumigate my building and $1000 to fumigate my neighbor's building. Initially my neighbor agreed to pay his part and the buildings would be fumigated at the same time. Now he is backsliding. First he wanted to split the $1000 cost for his building with me. Then he decided I should pay for his building completely since I'm the one who initiated the project.

Questions:
1. How are situations like this typically handled?
2. What should I do?
3. Can I force him to fumigate his building at his expense?
4. If I fumigate his building at my expense is a lawsuit to recover his "unjust enrichment" reasonable or a non-starter?
5. If he refuses to allow my termite guy to fumigate his building even at my expenses can I force him to do provide access?

I realize that I'm on shaky ground when I mention forcing him to do anything. But if his building was full of rats that were coming into my building I would have remedies, right? Isn't this similar?

How important is your building to you? You cannot force him to do anything. Especially when you cannot prove that his building has termites. Pay for them both.

 

[quincy]

If your property is the one with the termite problem, you are the one who should be paying the entire cost of fumigating both your property and your neighbor’s property.

If you do not pay for the fumigation for your neighbor’s property and decide to only fumigate your property, your neighbor could sue you for any termite damage caused to his property later.

I agree with Ohiogal that you should pay the entire cost of fumigation.

 

[Just Blue]

@quincy Did you mean "isn't" the one?

 

[quincy]

@quincy Did you mean "isn't" the one?

I don’t think so ...

What part of what I said seems wrong to you?

 

[Just Blue]

I don’t think so ...

What part of what I said seems wrong to you?

sigh...never mind. I misread your post. I should be barred from posting until I've had my morning coffee. Seriously...it should be a FA Law that "Blue Can Not Post Until She Is Caffeinated".

Imma gonna call my FA Rep to get it passed.

 

[quincy]

sigh...never mind. I misread your post. I should be barred from posting until I've had my morning coffee. Seriously...it should be a FA Law that "Blue Can Not Post Until She Is Caffeinated".

Imma gonna call my FA Rep to get it passed.

Haha. I was fully caffeinated and wide awake when I posted so I didn’t think I had misspoken - but it’s always a possibility.

 

[zddoodah]

Can I force him to fumigate his building at his expense?

Not legally.

If I fumigate his building at my expense is a lawsuit to recover his "unjust enrichment" reasonable or a non-starter?

You cannot legally procure the fumigation of his building without his permission. Presumably, he would only give you permission if you agree to cover the cost, and such an agreement would negate an unjust enrichment claim.

If he refuses to allow my termite guy to fumigate his building even at my expenses can I force him to do provide access?

Not legally.

Your options are to convince the neighbor to pay, pay yourself, or file nuisance lawsuit, which will take a minimum of a year and cost you a heck of a lot more than $1k.

 

[douglasssmith]

Here's some further information. I guess I didn't make it clear that my neighbor's building has termite infestation. That's the reason it needs to be fumigated as well as mine. Here is some additional information. Since my message was already long, I didn't figure it was essential. But I'm now including it, given the direction the replies have gone.

My neighbors property (Property B) consists of a lager building that is not attached to mine (Property A). This larger building is actually attached to a neighbor's building on the other side (Property C). The smaller building that is attached to mine costs of four garages. (The garages are not attached to my neighbor's larger building.) When my termite guy inspected my building, he also inspected my neighbor's smaller building -- since the garages were open and a maintenance person there gave permission. My termite guy did a thorough inspection of the smaller building and a cursory inspection of my neighbor's larger building. He found extensive termite damage in the smaller building -- way worse than mine -- in part because the garages have no doors. He also found evidence of termites in my neighbor's larger building.

I provided all this info to my neighbor. He said he knew he probably had termites but he didn't know if it was time for a tenting. After a lot of fits and starts he finally got around to asking my termite guy for an inspection. My guy originally thought it made financial sense to do my building and both of my neighbor's buildings at the same time. (Economy of scale.) But when he did the actual inspection of the larger building it became apparent that my neighbor's larger building was attached to Property C. Now my neighbor feels he wants to contact the owner of Property C before moving forward. That makes sense since his larger building and the Property C building are joined. But my termite guy says my neighbor can make a decision on his garages separate from his larger building since they are not connected. He feels my neighbor is using his larger building and the building on Property C as an excuse to wear me down so that I finally pay for fumigating his garages at my own expense. And quite frankly, I'm almost to that point.

It's taken three months since the first inspection of my building to get us to this point. How much more time will it take to now deal with a third owner? But before I agree to paying to fumigate my neighbor's building, I thought I'd seek advice as what typically happens in these cases before I proceed. As someone said in one of the replies above, I could be liable if termites from my building enter his. So doesn't this work in reverse? If I fumigate my building but not his garages isn't my neighbor responsible if the termites in his garages enter my newly fumigated building? But my termite guy feels that whatever the law says, it would be foolhardy to fumigate my building and not do the garages as well.

Now maybe the five questions I asked make more sense.

 

[Zigner]

The answers don't change.

 

[xylene]

You need to get over yourself and mitigate this situation. 1 dollar a sq ft is cheap for this.

 

[douglasssmith]

Got it. The consensus is that I should fumigate my neighbor's building when I do my own. As I said, I was leaning in that direction since I'm tired of dealing with him. So that is what I will do. Thanks to all for the advice.

But I'd like to be clear on the legal principle. Is this consensus because I don't have a legal leg to stand on (i.e., I can't make my neighbor fumigate his own building), or because this isn't worth the legal hassle?

And to get at that point, answer me this. Would the advice be the same if things were reversed? That is, what if my neighbor wanted to fumigate his small termite-infested building that was attached to my termite-infested building but I took the same position he is taking? Would the advice be the same — that if he wanted his small building fumigated then he needed to pay for my building as well?

 

[adjusterjack]

The smaller building that is attached to mine costs of four garages.

Whoa! That's an important bit of information that you didn't provide earlier. "Adjacent" is not the same as "attached."

 

[douglasssmith]

@adjusterjack I'm not sure the legal difference so I might be using imprecise language. The buildings are separate structures because I have seen the plans to my building. But there is zero space between them. In fact, I have seen these called zero lot line buildings. In the picture, my building is the white one; my neighbor's garages are yellow. The yellow on my building to the right of the garages is just paint.

These buildings date to the 1960s and the adjacent exterior walls have deteriorated in places. I know because one repair inside my building caused a portion of the adjacent building to be exposed. And from my neighbor's side, cars have backed into the back wall of the garage damaging both it as well as my wall. So termites can easily migrate from one building to the other.

Picture of the neighbor's small building (garages) attached to mine.

 

[STEPHAN]

Not legal advice, but we have had much more success will tentless termite treatment. We have used this on many buildings. And there would be no need to do the other property.