Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Iowa

A couple weeks after a tree crushed the corner of our roof(7-24-09), the contractor hired to side our house finished the siding job with intent to return and repair the storm damage. He was paid in full for the siding job and given $1000(our ins. deductable) as downpayment for the repair job. After 5 unreturned phone calls, 3 letters from our lawyer, and pending small claims suit(3-10), his partner contacted us and agreed to pay back the down payment as well as over $2500 in damages resulting from water damage/mold in our basement caused by lack of gutters from the crushed roof. We had another contractor fix the roof and finish the siding. The first contractor had left excess siding in our garage since August 2009. He had ample opportunity to pick this up when he returned for his tools after the siding job was done(late August 2009).In addition, one of the attorney's letters(10-09) gave this contractor the option to pick it up within 2 weeks or assume the product was abandoned and ours to keep. No response until we pursued the damages in small claims court. In the meantime, this spring, we allowed the new contractor to use the excess siding to side our detached garage which had not been in the original estimate of the first contractor. The original contractor was very upset that we used "his materials" to do this and is now demanding we pay him back for what we used. He claims he left several thousand dollars worth here, the other contractor said it was barely worth $1000. There is still a small amount of leftover siding in our garage. We were not able to put our car in our garage for almost the past year, no response from contractor until he was threatened with litigation. The money for damages(he settled out of court) was paid in two installments, both of which did not meet the deadline(agreed upon in writing). We have spoken to our attorney, but he seems to be leaning toward paying the contractor back for the siding. This would essentially cancel out what we had gained toward our damages. Opinion?


Asked on 5/10/10, 5:22 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Luedeman solo practitioner

When were you planning on paying contractor number one, the rightful owner of the siding, for it?

You had no right to tell the new contractor to use property that did not, in fact, belong to you. In fact, you've dragged contractor number two into your mess with contractor number one, and contractor number two certainly could not be pleased about this. You did tell contractor number two that you did not own the siding, I assume?

I think your attorney is showing commendable presence of mind and the kind of restraint that you should observe and emulate.

What you should have done, of course, is rented a storage locker for one month, stored the siding, and mailed the key to the guy with a note saying "If you don't pick it up it's your problem.".

You could also have put it out in the yard and parked your car as you like.

Read more
Answered on 5/18/10, 10:12 am


Related Questions & Answers

More General Civil Litigation questions and answers in Iowa