PROPERTYSPARK ARTICLE

Protecting Your Investment: Legal Recourse For Property Damage

What Is Property Damage?

Property damage is an effortlessly self-explanatory term; it’s when your property becomes damaged. However, what’s important to recognize about property damage is that an annoyingly large bunch of factors can cause it:

• Human causes: From theft to vandalism and arson, you can innocently fall victim to human causes of property damage, which is why it’s important to deter potential criminals with stringent security solutions.
• Weather: Hail, hurricanes, storms, and flooding can all wreak terror and havoc on your property, leading to issues that can’t cheaply be resolved.
• Accidental damage: Accidents like fires and stray baseballs happen and can haphazardly cause minor to severe property damage.
• Animal damage: Termites, raccoons, and bears are all threats to your property’s health and safety, and y

With so many authentic and tangible potential causes of property damage, your anxiety is absolutely justified. However, with the right protection and the right choices when evaluating a property through your real estate agent, you can soothingly provide the right answers to all of those ‘what ifs’ running through your mind at night.

Legal Recourse For Property Damage: Your Options

So, your property’s damaged – what now? Your options will vastly differ depending on the cause of the damage, so let’s take a look on a case-by-case basis to see whether it’s legal or insurance options that best suit your needs.

When It’s Your Fault

If you, your family, friends, or your pet accidentally caused costly and irksome property damage, then there’s no hope of pursuing legal recourse. So, your only option is to rely on your insurance policy (and the better your policy, the more help you’ll get!).

If you opt for cover that comprehensively covers small accidents around the home, you’ll be covered for the cost of repairs – and your insurance company may just helpfully recommend a suitable and reliable repair service.

When It’s Someone Else’s Fault

When someone damages your property, you’re entitled to pursue recompensing legal action against them. However, this involves the burdensome task of first identifying the person who damaged the property.

If you don’t have security cameras, or the culprit was covering their face when they performed the damage, this can be extremely difficult.

If you’re lucky enough to identify the person who committed the damage, you can attempt to gain compensation in a few ways. First, you can try sending a demand letter requesting direct payment for the damage. This option is great if you want to avoid bringing your case to court.

If that doesn’t work, you could sue the perpetrator. This will cover the total cost of the repairs and perhaps some compensation for any injury or trauma caused by the event. If the property is damaged beyond repair, you can sue them for the total cost to replace the property.

When It’s Animals

If there are animal infestations present when you purchase the property, and they were willfully and deceitfully not disclosed to you by the seller when buying the property, you’re fully entitled to pursue a lawsuit. This will hopefully cover the total cost of the damages caused by the infestation.

For instance, if there are termites burrowing their way into the joists and beams in the property, this is the seller’s responsibility and legal duty to report if they are aware of the issue. So, they should rightfully cover the cost of replacing the beams and exterminating the termites from the property altogether.

How To Protect Yourself Against Property Damage

The unfortunate occurrence of property damage doesn’t have to be a waking hell when you worry about where to find the money for repairs. There are certain things you can do to reduce the likelihood of property damage and to minimize the impact should it occur anyway.

Install Security

Security systems are a coup for deterring crime on your property. The presence of security cameras will ward off any criminals casing the property, while access control and smart door locks will make it impossible for them to pick your locks and gain access.

Vape sensors can also help you reliably detect vaping and smoking on the property, alerting you to squatters and potential fire hazards.

As well as warding off malignant criminals, the system will provide evidence after an incident, allowing you to provide clear-cut and irrefutable evidence to your insurance company that the event was not your fault.

Invest In Property Insurance

Property insurance means you won’t be pulling your hair out, making financial sacrifices, and staying up into the dead of night should a fire, broken glass window, or termite infestation occur. Securing your prime assets with insurance is always the right way to go to protect yourself and ensure you have the means to restore your property after a detrimental incident.

Summary

There are four primary (and mostly unavoidable) causes of property damage: natural disasters, people, animals, and accidents. We can’t control these irksome and anxiety-inducing factors, but we can create a clear-cut plan for pursuing legal action and managing our finances when they lead to property damage. Consider the legal and insurance options listed above and whether they’d make you feel safer and more secure about your home’s future in the event of a property disaster.