We had just come home from running errands, when our elderly neighbor called us. He was very upset. He had backed his car into our second house!
Our property is very weird. We have two houses on one lot. Our second house is currently being used for storage, but our property is classified as two family. We were in the process of deciding if we should renovate the second house for a rental or tear it down and put up a garage. The second house is also only two feet from the property line (again, weird...our houses were built 100 years ago).
Apparently our neighbor parked his car in his garage (it's uphill from our house), but neglected to put it in park (he put it in neutral, and couldn't figure out why he couldn't get the key out). He got out of the car and stepped away when the car went rolling backwards. It slammed into the house and shifted the wall off the foundation and dented it in. Thank God our neighbor wasn't hurt!
Now we have a dilemma. I personally don't think the house is worth fixing (foundation work, new plumbing, new electrical, new heating...basicly needs to be gutted and redone). DH has estimated that, if he does the work himself, it will still cost about $75,000 to renovate. To knock it down and put up a garage will cost a lot too. I don't think the neighbors insurance will give us very much since the building wasn't in that great of shape to begin with. We have to figure out how we're going to come up with the money and exactly what we're going to do (suing our neighbor is not an option).
Thanks for listening to my rambling. Does anyone have any suggestions? Between this and the damage our dog dod while we were away on vacation, I'm ready to sell the house and move into an apartment.
Our property is very weird. We have two houses on one lot. Our second house is currently being used for storage, but our property is classified as two family. We were in the process of deciding if we should renovate the second house for a rental or tear it down and put up a garage. The second house is also only two feet from the property line (again, weird...our houses were built 100 years ago).
Apparently our neighbor parked his car in his garage (it's uphill from our house), but neglected to put it in park (he put it in neutral, and couldn't figure out why he couldn't get the key out). He got out of the car and stepped away when the car went rolling backwards. It slammed into the house and shifted the wall off the foundation and dented it in. Thank God our neighbor wasn't hurt!
Now we have a dilemma. I personally don't think the house is worth fixing (foundation work, new plumbing, new electrical, new heating...basicly needs to be gutted and redone). DH has estimated that, if he does the work himself, it will still cost about $75,000 to renovate. To knock it down and put up a garage will cost a lot too. I don't think the neighbors insurance will give us very much since the building wasn't in that great of shape to begin with. We have to figure out how we're going to come up with the money and exactly what we're going to do (suing our neighbor is not an option).
Thanks for listening to my rambling. Does anyone have any suggestions? Between this and the damage our dog dod while we were away on vacation, I'm ready to sell the house and move into an apartment.
