Legal action against neighbor contractor?

[Tjm02c]

I live in DC. The building next to mine was bought a little over a year ago and construction started pretty quickly after that, but it's still not close to being done and the people working there will go stretches of time without showing up. Typically that wasn't too much of a problem, other than the place being an eyesore, but 2 months back they decided to get back to work and had to knock down a wall and fence separating our properties (damaging some steps on my property in the process) and stated that this phase of the construction would be completed in two weeks. Two months later and it's still a mess and they haven't showed up to do anything in over a week. Is there anything I can do to force them to get this thing done in a more timely manner? This project has been dragging on for a long time and I don't want to have no privacy and broken stairs for the next 6 months.

 

[Ohiogal]

Did you own the fence or did they? Did you inform the builder/contractor that they damaged your steps?

 

[Tjm02c]

Not sure who technically owns the fence and they were the ones who told me about the stairs being damaged. I'm not too worried currently about them fixing it eventually, I'm more worried about when eventually will be. If there's a way they could be charged a fee every day it's like this or something similar it'd motivate them to get it done quickly. Not sure if that's something that'd actually happen though and if it'd even be worth the hassle if it was possible.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Unless the owner is violating some local law, maybe limited time to complete a permitted building, the only damages you have are the steps and maybe the fence if you own it.

 

[Zigner]

No, you can't arbitrarily charge a fee. Get a few quotes on getting the steps fixed and present them to the company.