Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Demolition of an attached garage

Gee I like that concept. Maybe if I publish a notice in the newspaper that I may collide with someone's car then I can relieved of liability too.

Go up to your neighbor and slap him in the back of the head. Hard.

He is sooooooo wrong. There are a couple of concepts at issue, the first is simple negligence. If he damages your property then he will be held responsible for the resulting damage. Which would be measured by the costs to restore your property to it's previous status.

There is also a concept called lateral support. Most often this is applied to land in the natural state. If your neighbor excavated for a foundation or a pool. And that caused your land to slump and your foundation cracked then your neighbor would be responsible. Here the garages were built with a common wall. Whether this was done with permission or permissvely doesn't matter (i.e., the later garage builder wasn't told to tear it down). He is required to exercise all due care to maintain the support wall in the current condition.

If the wall is damaged thereby damaging your garage then he's responsible.

But then this is one of those matters where you need to work with your neighbor. Tell him he's wrong and that you do not accept his proposition. He must use caution and repair any damage.

Regards and good luck.

Roger Traversa

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