Large property development projects will often cause damage to homes and commercial buildings in the surrounding area. If the proper authorities aren’t notified, however, then it is unlikely that the homeowners will ever be compensated for the damages their properties sustained. This is why The Duggan Law Firm’s Chris Duggan, an environmental attorney in Charlotte, recommends that homeowners in North Carolina contact the state’s Department of Environmental and Natural Resources if they ever suspect that their properties are being damaged by sediment from neighboring construction projects.
It can be difficult for a homeowner to prove that the damage sustained on his property was actually caused by a nearby construction project, especially in cases where it is impossible to tell whether chemicals in the ground were present before the nearby project began. Nonetheless, the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources should be able to set homeowners on the right path toward the discovery of facts. Duggan recommends that homeowners use the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources as their enforcement arm in these types of matters.
Despite what many people think, homeowners do not have to retain a lawyer for all types of environmental cases. If a homeowner is unhappy about something like sediment coming onto his property due to an erosion issue, then that is something that would better served by the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, says Duggan.
There are times when a lawyer does need to be retained, however - specifically in matters of structural damage. If the environmental situation pertains to structural damage caused on a property, as opposed to environmental or chemical damage, then an attorney can round up experts to prove liability in the case.
One example of structural damage is if the foundation of a person’s home is cracked due to ground movement created by a neighboring construction project. After the homeowner discovers the problem and gets in contact with an environmental attorney, that attorney would then begin the process of retaining experts to prove that the foundation damages were actually caused by the neighboring construction, and not by the homeowner himself. Without these experts, it can be nearly impossible to prove to a judge exactly what caused the damage to a home or property. More specifically, it can be difficult to prove that the damage was not already there before the construction began.
The majority of environmental lawsuits filed over neighboring construction projects never make it to court, and Duggan says that the vast majority settle long before a judge has to get involved. Many construction companies carry insurance policies to cover these types of claims, and the insurance companies themselves will usually do a cost/benefit analysis to determine what the extent of their liability is for each claim filed. If the liability is likely to be quite high, then most insurance companies would rather settle the case than take it all the way to court.
In cases where a construction company does not have insurance for one reason or another, it would need to retain its own environmental attorney for representation. In almost every case, the cost of litigation will far outweigh the cost to mediate the problem, which is why so many environmental law cases involving property damage due to neighboring projects get settled out of court.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
