Can I sue the builder after house fire?

[Funnyfarm]

Colorado

We had our home built in 2002, it had issues from the beginning, some electrical which continued through the years and we had fixed.
The general contractor pretty much blew us off, the builder told me to go through my insurance company, neither cared about tree warranty once they got their money. I went to the county and they told me that I could not do anything.

Fast forward 11 years.... an electrical fire started, the house, pets, contents all gone total loss. In one of the few remaining walls, shoddy wiring which was not up to code was found. Who knows what was in the other walls, possibly the same or worse.

Our insurance company sucked, I had to contact the state insurance commissioner to even get anywhere. They left us homeless for months until I contacted " Dora". But in the end we were still shorted on home price as well as other things.

My questions are:

Can I sue the builder for the 125k we were shorted?
What type of attorney do I need?
What is the statue of limitations?

Thank you

 

[Zigner]

Colorado

We had our home built in 2002, it had issues from the beginning, some electrical which continued through the years and we had fixed.
The general contractor pretty much blew us off, the builder told me to go through my insurance company, neither cared about tree warranty once they got their money. I went to the county and they told me that I could not do anything.

Fast forward 11 years.... an electrical fire started, the house, pets, contents all gone total loss. In one of the few remaining walls, shoddy wiring which was not up to code was found. Who knows what was in the other walls, possibly the same or worse.

Our insurance company sucked, I had to contact the state insurance commissioner to even get anywhere. They left us homeless for months until I contacted " Dora". But in the end we were still shorted on home price as well as other things.

My questions are:

Can I sue the builder for the 125k we were shorted?
What type of attorney do I need?
What is the statue of limitations?

Thank you

If you were "shorted" 125k, then your beef is with the insurance company.
What do you need an attorney for?
Statute of limitations for what?

 

[Funnyfarm]

The insurance company is not going to do anything else. Even after the commissioner told them they had to provide us with a temporary livable place they pretty much walked away after paying us for half of what it will cost us to rebuild.

The builder did substandard not to code work inside the walls which was not visible until after the fire. It was deemed an electrical fire was the cause.
Their work was shoddy and most likely caused the fire. It was one of many electrical issues over the years.

Statute of limitations on whether I can sue the builder for the difference.
What's the time limit either from when it was built or the time limit after the fire.

 

[FlyingRon]

Absent knowing what your policy covered, it's impossible to say what they are responsible for. The standard pollicies do not oblige them to give you temporary shelter, just to put the house back into roughly the same condition it ws in before the loss, subject to policy limits.

Houses are sold as-is. You're going to have a hard time proving that there is any responsibility to the builder after ELEVEN years.

 

[Zigner]

It sounds to me like your home wasn't worth as much as you owe on it.

 

[Funnyfarm]

Actually the home was worth more then we owed. After a hail storm the home was valued at by the insurance company at 396k which they said hail is an act of God and the deductible doesn't not apply and hit us with one percent instead.
It appraised higher, we were thinking of selling in a couple of years and had it appraised.
I should have gotten rid of them after that but I didn't think anything else would happen between now and when we were going to sell. Stupid in hindsight.

Yes our policy covered living costs, contents etc.
The home cost 264k to build new in 2002 and yet they gave us 188k to rebuild. The prices on lumber and etc are all higher now then they were in 02.

Yes its been 11 yrs of dealing with electrical and other issues that they screwed up. So builders can just get away with things not to code, then why is there even one?

 

[Zigner]

Actually the home was worth more then we owed. After a hail storm the home was valued at by the insurance company at 396k which they said hail is an act of God and the deductible doesn't not apply and hit us with one percent instead.
It appraised higher, we were thinking of selling in a couple of years and had it appraised.
I should have gotten rid of them after that but I didn't think anything else would happen between now and when we were going to sell. Stupid in hindsight.

Yes our policy covered living costs, contents etc.
The home cost 264k to build new in 2002 and yet they gave us 188k to rebuild. The prices on lumber and etc are all higher now then they were in 02.

Yes its been 11 yrs of dealing with electrical and other issues that they screwed up. So builders can just get away with things not to code, then why is there even one?

Then you were underinsured.

If there were electrical problems for 11 years, why didn't you address them with the builder earlier? ...and by "address them" I mean to file a lawsuit. There is a two year statute of limitations in your state from the date that defects are first discovered. You had an electrical fire after dealing with electrical issues for ~11 years.

See http://www.hindmansanchez.com/resources/newsletter/harsh-new-time-limits-construction-defect-claims/ for a write-up (not an endorsement, just a reference with information.)