Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Pennsylvania

I am in need of legal advice regarding a Landlord who owns a property next door to me who has been a constant nuisance to me and my family.

The Landlord bought these properties cheap, they were not up to code and were in need of serious work. No decent people would rent these properties from this Landlord which resulted in him signing up for the section 8 housing program.

The inspectors came to see the houses and made a list of what improvements needed to be done in order for them to be rented out to tenants on section 8. One of the requirements were to remove paint on the eaves. One of the eaves needed to be scraped and painted on my side of the property. Our properties are very close together, almost within arms reach, and when the paint crew turned up, they needed access to our property to get the ladder up to the top eave, that overhung over our yard to scrape and paint it.

I knew that I did not have to allow them on to my property to do the work, as I remembered a Neighbor who won in Civil Court, over another property owner, who tried to Demolish a house next to her and the work crew needed to be on her property to do so. The judge ruled that she did not have allow anyone access to her property to do any work.

They asked my wife if they could set up there and access it, the Landlord never gave us any notification that they were coming. We knew they were in a bit of a jam, there was no other way of accessing it and we decided to cut them a break. We felt that we would benefit from the improvements because we were in the process of repairing and improving our home and we wanted the houses to look nice as well.

We clearly informed them that if we allowed them on to our property there would be certain conditions that would have to met in order for them to do so. These conditions were: that they had insurance, we would not be liable for any of there injury's, that they clean up any mess and pay for any damages. They told us they were fully insured and agreed to our terms. We also asked if the paint was lead based, they said no. We felt the terms were clear and we felt reassured that everything was very clear, and at that point we allowed them access to finish their work.

We checked on them to make sure they were set up safe and that they had laid down the tarps they said they would to catch the paint chips. After about two hours, my wife and I heard a blower being used in our yard, I looked out through the window to see one of the workers blowing paint chips, that was not caught by the tarps they layed out, into a corner wall in a pile. I thought, at the time, that they were collecting the remaining chips into one collective pile to scrape up and dispose of. I thought no more of it and went about my business. When I checked on them again they were no longer there. They never told us they were leaving. I inspected my property to find that all of the paint chips had not been cleaned up and that the pile in the corner to had not been swept up. I inspected the paint chips further to find that it had a curious tint to it. I decided to

double check to make sure it was not lead based paint and bought a lead inspection kit certified by the EPA. Me and my wife tested the paint chips to find that they tested positive for lead and

that there was high concentration of it.

I did not get the phone number of the paint crew and paint company, so me and my wife approached the Landlord, in a civilized manner, when he turned up the next morning with the section 8 housing inspector, to get the name an number of the painting company; to get them to clean up the mess they had made. He said he would after the inspector left, at this exact time the ordinance inspector for the municipality showed up after numerous complaints about his properties and numerous attempts to inspect them were averted. He was embarrassed in front of the section 8 housing inspector, and had to deal with the ordinance inspectors demands to see the properties. After both men had left, the Landlord was very Irate and climbed over our 3ft fence and trespassed on to our property. The property line is clearly defined and all entrances to our property are clearly marked No Trespassing.

He trespassed on to our property to try and clean up the lead paint, but not in a lead safe way. We had informed him earlier that, according to the EPA, who we spoke to the day before, that dry sweeping lead is unsafe, it stirs up lead dust particles that can be inhaled and lead to serious health risks. We showed him print outs from the EPA's website on how to safely remove and dispose of lead paint. He refused to look at it. My wife said; your stirring up more lead dust and he replied; I don't care, I don't care if I make myself sick, you sick or anybody else, You can

take me to court all you want and sue me for all I care. "You have been against me from day one". In fact me and my wife and other neighbor's have been more than helpful towards him and his wife, yet despite good intentions, they have taken advantage of peoples generosity and kindness and think that they can do anything they want and not answer to anybody.

When we tried to reason with him, he still continued sweeping, brushing past my wife and then crossed through our gate, which was also clearly marked no trespassing. He now had accessed our back yard to brush up the lead on the side of our yard were the eaves of his property overhang. He kept brushing and wouldn't stop so we had to call the police to have him removed. As soon as my wife started calling on her cell phone, he stopped what he was doing and dumped what lead paint he had into our plant bed and left our property.

He began locking up the house he used for storage and when the police showed up he he quickly turned his back and ran to his vehicle and left. We explained to the police what happened

I said we have proof, while my wife was trying to reason with him I grabbed a camera and took pictures because I knew it was going to be our word vs his and I wanted to have definite proof that we could use in case it came to court. The Police Officer said it was OK that he believed us and noticed that the property perimeter was clearly defined no trespassing. He asked us if we wanted to press charges, we decided after some thought we would just want to give him a warning to stay off and away from our property since this was his first offense against us. Also we contacted the EPA after the incident about how we should proceed after this incident and they informed us that we should take pictures of the site were the lead contaminated our home and the surrounding area. Also any further damage and contamination caused by the Landlords intrusion. We mailed all the evidence and filled out an incident report to them, we are awaiting any outcome with their investigation.

A couple of hours after the police left, the owner of the paint company turned up at our door. He said, didn't you have my number? We said no, that is why we spoke to the Landlord to try and get it from him. He said The Landlord called him complaining that we called the Police on him because they, the paint company, had gotten Lead paint through our yard. The Landlord did not tell the owner of the company that the Police were called because the Landlord was acting recklessly, was acting in a threatening manner and had trespassed on to our property and was causing more property damage. The owner of the company said he and his crew

would clean up the mess by using a blower! I told him that, that was not the proper way of removing it. That is what caused the problem in the first place. He said that when they were inspecting the property, only one side of the eaves had lead on it. I said no, there is lead on my property from the eaves they had scraped from above. I tested it twice with a lead inspection kit and I said I have one left, we can test it out right now. A worried nervous look came over his face He knew I had him cornered and there was no way he could say there was no lead paint on my side because I knew he was lying to me. He said, no no that's OK, me and the guys will blow all this away, again I told this idiot, that you can't do that it gets airborne and into the lungs and absorbed through the skin. You have to use a vacuum with a Hepa Filter to filter the dust.

I still don't think he got it and he said, when you pull your plants up me and the guys will get the lead out from soil. After meeting this man, I knew that he and his crew were a bunch of fly by nights, who don't do professional work and the only way I can get this cleaned properly was to get a professional crew to remove and dispose of it properly. I knew he wouldn't dispose of it safely and properly and he and his crew would have probably contaminated another area were they chose to dump it.

So it has been almost 5 months since the incident and nobody has bothered to apologize our offer to clean it up. I have not filed a civil lawsuit as soon as it happened because me and my wife had to many bills and taxes to pay including car insurance and we are on low income. Only now has are finances been freed up enough to pursue this in civil court.

Over the remainder of the summer, we were unable to fully enjoy the use of our yard for fear of lead dust inhalation, we did what the EPA advised us to do to reduce the risks by wet sweeping it into a corner were we would not occupy as much. Our daughter could not go out and play as she used to enjoy, especially since this was the holidays. Our dogs have to use the yard and they have been constantly exposed to this as well as ourselves, when we must go outside to gain access to our car and mow then lawn.

We hired a local contractor who is certified in lead removal to estimate how much it would cost to clean it up safely. We found they were certified on the EPA's website as recommended by the EPA. He came out and did a thorougher examination of all areas of our property using a EPA certified kit. He determined that all areas of were the paint chips were present were contaminated with lead. He estimated the clean up cost to be $2350.

My question is, would it be to late to file a civil lawsuit against the landlord and the

paint company? If not do I have a good enough case to pursue it in court, and if so how would I go about presenting this case to win a Judgment against the Paint Company and the Landlord.

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