Quote:
Originally Posted by Shazam
"Uh, instead of building a fence out of solid wood, can we just give you a solid gold ingot instead?"
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I know this is a joke, but settling for a reasonable amount and figuring out what to do with the fence is reasonable IMO, especially if you are OK with just doing a band aid solution and sorting out the rest later on when materials costs aren't as insane. (ie: kinda like totaled car, but paid out rather than bother trying to repair that car).
Quote:
Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
It doesn't matter what I think, if they damaged it to such a point that it needs replacing they don't owe that to him.
His insurance company is contractually required to pay replacement cost (if he purchased that product).
The city only owes him the costs of the property they damaged.
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I believe the city at least owes him the costs relating to restoring his property to the condition prior to the damage they (their employee) inflicted on his property. But why there are comments saying OP would be on the hook for getting his own insurance to address the rest of the replacement costs makes no sense to me. Maybe OP's insurance corresponds with the city/the city's insurance people, but I don't believe they should be paying the costs here. The city/the city's insurance should be doing that.
OP's fence was fine until they effed it up. The city doesn't get to just run off with only the costs of a few new fence boards and a little paint and then you charge the rest to your own insurance.
It won't be exact and yes they don't owe him a completely new fence, but you can't exactly just say, "It's an old fence and basically worthless." in the same way you can't just say, "Your car is older and only the door is damaged. Thereby we owe you barely anything." Often times, a body shop will get a new part and then there's the labour and perhaps additional costs for addressing structural issues that weren't there before.