Siding replacement

[brentsid]

What is the name of your state? MN

My neighbor's son shot 12 holes in the back of my house and garage along with 3 other neighbor's houses/garages with a bb gun. Her(neigbor's) insurannce adjuster is offering to pay for residing of the entire walls damaged which he deems equates to 1/4 of the professional estimate I received to reside whole house and garage. Siding is 19 yrs old and cannot be matched or I would patch in the damaged pieces myself so I want the whole house done. Adjuster says to go to matchsiding.com to find the siding. I have read that insurers are not always responsible for matching but I have not made a claim with my insurance on this, I want them to pay for it. I am a general contractor in MN and I know that they cannot match 19 old discontinued siding. What can I do to get their insurance to pay for residing of my house? I don't want to accept 1/4 of the cost as I need to sell my house and noone wants a house in 2 colors or with diffent types of siding. What is her insuranve companies liability on this--do they have repair my home to original color and quality? What is a good course of action to get them to pay me for this? Do I sue homeowner? Do I call my insurance and ruin my rating? Any advice helpful.

 

[jhmva]

I cannot speak to the legal responsibility of the parents if you were to sue them directly, but can speak on the insurance. The neighbors' policy is not responsible to replace all the siding regardless of the color match. I know that is very fustrating, but the liability portion of their policy (which is where this coverage would come from) is only availble to real property actually physically damaged or destroyed. The color mismatch does not have a functional issue or affect the siding other than cosmetically. That being said...if you decide to sue your neighbor the insurance company has an obligation to provide legal defense for your neighbor unless you have already accepted the adjusters offer to replace the "damaged" portion. I have seen numerous times where the other 3/4s end up being paid by the insurer simply because it is cheaper then the legal expenses would be. It doesn't mean that they HAVE to, but if you plan to sue the neighbor for the additional 3/4s anyway, I'd recommend that you do it before you accept the insurance offer and see what happens. Additionally, since you are a GC you probably already thought of this, but just in case...you may want to remove the siding TEMPORARILY tolook behind it, bb could have also caused damage behind the siding and this could lead to further complications later if you discover after the claim has been closed.

 

[brentsid]

Thanks

Thanks for the advice, I have been sitting on the adjuster's 1/4 offer for a few days and didn not plan to accept it anyhow. I appreciate you advice. Insurance is a complicated matter.

 

[Ohiogal]

The other side of it is, you could lose. And end up spending a heck of a lot of money to get nothing different than what is now offered. YOu didn't win the lottery. Insurance only has to pay what was damaged which is a 1/4 of your house. If you want the rest of the house done, do it yourself.

 

[brentsid]

Lottery

Would you want a two tone house? I should pay for making my house one color myself? You can't re-side 1/4 of a house to match the rest when it is 19 yrs old. If it were your house you wouldn't wabt to pay for it yourself if someone else damaged it. Just want my house to be all one color like it was before.

Brent

 

[fairisfair]

Would you want a two tone house? I should pay for making my house one color myself? You can't re-side 1/4 of a house to match the rest when it is 19 yrs old. If it were your house you wouldn't wabt to pay for it yourself if someone else damaged it. Just want my house to be all one color like it was before.

Brent

then get paintable siding and paint the house after the repairs are complete. If the rest of the siding is 19 years old, a fresh coat of paint probably wouldn't hurt

 

[brentsid]

Siding

The whole point of getting vinyl siding is that you don't ever have to paint it--that's why they invented it. Just admit that it is not enought to cover damages. You must work for an insurance company. I will likely just accept the 1/4 payment and take pieces to patch the house off the side of my garage which is in the neigbors fence anyhow , then put the new non-matching pieces on the side of my garage where prospective buyeres will not likely look. But all said and done there is still no way to match old siding unless you reside whole house. I deal with this all the time with home additions which is how I know. Thanks for all the advice though you have been very helpful.

 

[Ohiogal]

Would you want a two tone house? I should pay for making my house one color myself? You can't re-side 1/4 of a house to match the rest when it is 19 yrs old. If it were your house you wouldn't wabt to pay for it yourself if someone else damaged it. Just want my house to be all one color like it was before.

Brent

The problem you have is that the court will look at the life of the siding, may determine that it was due to be replaced anyway and only give you a portion of the damages (cost of replacement with a differential for life left before damage). If you go to court you will definitely have legal fees which you may not be able to get back. A two-tone house? I have seen those. You should pay for 3/4 of your house to be resided.

 

[fairisfair]

The whole point of getting vinyl siding is that you don't ever have to paint it--that's why they invented it. Just admit that it is not enought to cover damages. You must work for an insurance company. I will likely just accept the 1/4 payment and take pieces to patch the house off the side of my garage which is in the neigbors fence anyhow , then put the new non-matching pieces on the side of my garage where prospective buyeres will not likely look. But all said and done there is still no way to match old siding unless you reside whole house. I deal with this all the time with home additions which is how I know. Thanks for all the advice though you have been very helpful.

no, I don't work for an insurance company. Not even close. But I did once work for a company that installed siding, and no, not in the office, actually installing the siding. We tended to stay away from vinyl siding at that time however because the product was not of the quality that we wanted to install. The newer products are much more durable. In all honesty, I am surprised that it is still on your house at all.