Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Cesspool put in without permit and wrong depth

Your case is for breach of contract and the defects/failures you described. Whether it is time barred is a question, but you have nothing to lose by trying. Take them to small claims court if damages are under $7500. If you seek more, you'll have to file in Superior Court, and should then use an attorney.

Re: Cesspool put in without permit and wrong depth

You have a case for negligence and breach of contract (to name a few) against the original company. You may have an issue though with the statute of limitations. For your property damage, on a negligence theory, under Cal Code of Civ. Proc. Sec. 338 you will have three years from the date you knew or should have known to bring your claim. You mentioned that the company did not come after the $2,600 you owed them because they installed the cesspool at the incorrect depth. I imagine this exchange took place right around the time of construction which you mentioned was 4 years ago. This could be problematic.

However, assuming your contract with the original company was in writing, you have a 4 year statute of limitation to bring a claim. So, there still may be time.

I recommend you take all your paperwork and sit down with an attorney to review, sooner rather than later, to determine whether you can file a complaint and file it as soon as possible.

If you are serious about getting help, contact my office directly.

Best of Luck.

www.SoCalConstructionLaw.com

Re: Cesspool put in without permit and wrong depth

The solution to your problems lies in personal injury or tort law and in contract law. It is not a criminal matter although what the company did was criminal.

You have a cause of action against the company and the owners for negligence, breach of contract, and possibly fraud and some other tort causes of action. However, you also have some problems that you must address. Namely the amount of time that has passed since you discovered the problems or since you should have discovered the problems. You stated the work was performed 4 yrs ago, when did you discover there was no permit? and the work was done wrong? I would suggest you contact an attorney near you that does "construction defect" work. You can probably get a referral from either a personal injury attorney or from a contract attorney. If your not sure how to get into contact with an attorney call your local county bar association and ask for a referral. I also suggest you hurry as you are coming up on some possible statute of limitations issues. Good luck