Legal Question in Construction Law in Indiana

Construction/Real Estate Law

Our builder stopped building our new home 2 months after finding out that our home may or may not be over an abondoned mine shaft. We purchased mine subsidance insurance( we live in Clay County Indiana, which the state mandates the insurers provide mine subsidance insurance for our County and 12 others because of the heavy coal mining in the past). The builder then told us they would not continue building until we had a certified engineering firm give them a 100% guarentee that the mine shaft will never subside and then they would think about finishing the home. They have since let the home set for 2.5 months without doing anything or allowing us to contract work( roof mainly) so that the home does not suffer from any damages and then told us that damages that result from the weather are the homeowners responsibility to take care of. We signed a contract stating we would use arbitration instead of sueing, but if they breeched the contract initially why can't we sue?


Asked on 3/24/08, 3:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mark Voigtmann Baker & Daniels

Re: Construction/Real Estate Law

Although there is an outside possibility that the "agreement to arbitrate instead of litigate" portion of your construction contract might have been induced by fraud, it is much more likely that WHETHER the builder breached the contract (and all issues associated with that) must itself be arbitrated. That may or may not be a bad thing. Arbitration is legally binding and may produce a similar result as you would obtain in a court of law. If you would like our assistance we would first need to know your name and the name of the builder (and any other potentially liable parties, including possibly an architect or developer) so that we may determine if we would have any conflict of interest.

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Answered on 3/24/08, 3:41 pm


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