Water softener guys placed drain into my Ceiling sewer vent and disaster happended?!!!What are my rights and what would you guys do?

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Daron73m

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Hi, So we hired a legit company who installed our Water Softener 2 years ago and last week during a cycle we had between 50-100 gallons of water come down from the walls. Our plumber came out and discovered they drilled a hole into our cast iron sewer vent line in roof and pushed drain into it and siliconed it in place. Well apparently the pressure pushed it out and now its destroyed our ceiling and wood floors. What would you advise to do? We were told what they did is not code and also probably why we have had occasional sewer gas smells in our house.
 

Hightechburrito

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Are you asking what needs to be done to fix the damage, or who's supposed to pay for it?

If you're okay with the potential flag on your homeowner's insurance (and paying a deductible), the easiest thing to do would be to go through your insurance. They'd bring in a company to perform whatever remediation is needed, and go after the water softener installation company for payment. That last part would depend on the state you're in, though I would hope that there's no statute of limitation for work that isn't done to code.

I don't see any downside in contacting the owner/manager/etc of the water softener installation company first. Ideally, they'd be mortified at what their crew did and make you whole. If they tell you to pound sand then you go the insurance/lawyer route above.
 

Jeff H Young

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This appears to me as softener guy is partly at fault due to drilling a pipe and gooping up a homemade connection .
I'd contact the company , tell them I'm hiring it repaired and expect payment from him. but in reality most likely homeowners insurance claim and they will likely sue the contractor for damages. pretty much as hightech burrito suggests
 

Sylvan

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First notify the installer and allow them to make things right.

If they do not make a proper repair or they try to charge you then contact the code officials

Any decent company will fire the "tech" and make the right repairs.

You do have an option of taking them to small claims court or notify your insurance carrier

By the way I am now on a case where people complained about headaches and feeling nauseous and upon investigating the site I found a vent line was disconnected and used as a waste line allowing hydrogen sulfide ,methane, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous oxides to enter the space

This is being handled by personal injury law firm and besides me they have a doctor and other professionals giving depositions on long term effects etc
 

JohnCT

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As others have said, contact the water softener company and see what they say. If they are legit, they'll contact *their* insurance company to handle the cost of repairs. In the less likely case they don't want to own up, your insurance company will go after their insurance due to the code violation and poor workmanship.

John
 

Master Plumber Mark

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As others have said, contact the water softener company and see what they say. If they are legit, they'll contact *their* insurance company to handle the cost of repairs. In the less likely case they don't want to own up, your insurance company will go after their insurance due to the code violation and poor workmanship.

John


that is one path to take.... but I would rather be an ass-/ole about this and get everyone involved from the start...
sometimes being nice when it comes to stuff like this implies that you are weak and their insurance company is not really out for your best interests....

only your insurance company is going to be sure that no shortcuts are taken.

I would at the very least inform your company about the issue.... to keep a paper trail
going...
 

Gsmith22

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for litigation matters, everyone will want to see the issue first hand so be prepared to have the conditions linger while everyone gets up to speed and comes to see what happened. guilty parties tend to drag feet so the sooner you inform everyone, the faster the cleanup. And as stated above - "everyone" means your insurance company and the company that did the work. Standup companies will fix the issue and resulting issues on their dime in which case your insurance company will just close their claim. More often than not, the guilty party won't fix all they are responsible for, drag their feet, or not even respond but you want to make sure you give them the chance to make things right and/or see the problem for litigation arguments later. If they don't respond or drag feet or don't do all that is necessary to repair, your insurance should pay for repairs and then subrogate against the company that caused the problem. subrogate is just a fancy term for sue them on your behalf to get your insurance company's money back. absolutely keep every document and take pictures. you can't possibly take enough pictures. if you think you took too many pictures, take 10 more
 

Master Plumber Mark

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for litigation matters, everyone will want to see the issue first hand so be prepared to have the conditions linger while everyone gets up to speed and comes to see what happened. guilty parties tend to drag feet so the sooner you inform everyone, the faster the cleanup. And as stated above - "everyone" means your insurance company and the company that did the work. Standup companies will fix the issue and resulting issues on their dime in which case your insurance company will just close their claim. More often than not, the guilty party won't fix all they are responsible for, drag their feet, or not even respond but you want to make sure you give them the chance to make things right and/or see the problem for litigation arguments later. If they don't respond or drag feet or don't do all that is necessary to repair, your insurance should pay for repairs and then subrogate against the company that caused the problem. subrogate is just a fancy term for sue them on your behalf to get your insurance company's money back. absolutely keep every document and take pictures. you can't possibly take enough pictures. if you think you took too many pictures, take 10 more
What he says......
 

Sylvan

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What he says......
The law firm I testified for called a few minutes ago and the victim was awarded over 11/2 million dollars I never went to the site or saw any picture’s All I did receive was the model number of the heater and based on working knowledge I testified how stacking occurs I very seldom have to leave my office to send in a report based on what transpired Again I would contact the company document what happened and see how they respond
 

Plant.One

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while all the advice you're given sounds great - you still have a massive water damage issue to attend to your home.

take like 3 billion pictures and call your insurance company to get someone out to start the water damage mitigation.

you do NOT want mold forming in your walls because you took too long to get started drying the house out. your insurance company will thank you for that if nothing else.

and while i'm all for giving the company who effed things up a chance to do the repair, i'd still be more worried about getting your damage mitigation and drying the house down started ASAP


if you havent gotten that rolling already, you're already behind schedule.

since OP still hasnt been back and we're several weeks down the road i'm hoping thats the case.
 

Master Plumber Mark

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while all the advice you're given sounds great - you still have a massive water damage issue to attend to your home.

take like 3 billion pictures and call your insurance company to get someone out to start the water damage mitigation.

you do NOT want mold forming in your walls because you took too long to get started drying the house out. your insurance company will thank you for that if nothing else.

and while i'm all for giving the company who effed things up a chance to do the repair, i'd still be more worried about getting your damage mitigation and drying the house down started ASAP


if you havent gotten that rolling already, you're already behind schedule.

since OP still hasnt been back and we're several weeks down the road i'm hoping thats the case.


What he says too.... get the ball rolling now call your insurance company and get the place dried out through your insurance company asap.....
Its what you pay them for... dont be shy about this.... and its their job to go after payment from the water softener companies insurance ..

Most places get really pissed off if
you allow it to sit for a long time and mold gets a foothold in the home........
 
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Plant.One

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ya... mold removal/mitigation is tens of thousands of dollars in some cases. if you can prevent that your insurance company will be HIGHLY appreciative of you as a homeowner.

my cousin went thru a burst fitting in an upstairs bathroom a couple years ago. he lucked out and found it within a few hours of the elbo failing (they only owned the house about 36 months at the time). he shut the water down right away, did a quick patch on the bad elbow with some sharkbite stuff, had the insurance company on the phone within the hour of him finding out and they had a dry out company at his house before it got dark that night to get the fans and dehumidifiers going. his insurance adjuster was tickled pink how fast he caught it and reacted.
 
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