Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
If I hired a floor company to demo and install hardwood floors in my new home and they disturbed the asbestos containing laminate flooring under the carpet by breaking it apart and sanding the mastic glue, do I have any rights to go after them? They contaminated my home by doing this and now I have to use an abatement company to clean everything up. I did not have prior knowledge of the asbestos until a general contractor I was interviewing pointed it out to me.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You are going to have to be able to prove that the flooring contractor knew or should have known about the asbestos. If you can, and they went ahead and disturbed it without proper containment, they you probably have a case against them. Of course they will counter that it would have entitled them to a change order for the cost of abatement if they could have done it, or the right to stop work until you abated it at your expense, which is legally correct. So your recovery would only be the difference between what it would have cost to abate it at the time they did their work, and the cost of clean-up after the contamination.
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