Legal Question in Construction Law in Minnesota

We have a structural crack in the foundation and basement of our home discovered prior to the 10 year warranty. The builder is out of business and will not provide the name of the home insurer.

What is our recourse?


Asked on 5/15/12, 11:38 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Daniel Reiff Reiff Law Office

There are several options here. Whether they are actually useful, though, is another question. To determine that will take some time and a meeting with an attorney. Depending on a number of factors, there may still be an insurer on the hook, the owner(s) of the contractor may be personally responsible, or the contractors' fund may all be options. I would strongly suggest you hire an attorney immediately to go over these issues in depth with you and see what options you have at this point.

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Answered on 5/15/12, 11:53 am
Vincent W. King Vincent W. King, PA

First, despite the builder being out of business, make sure to provide written notice to the contractor. Providing such notice within 6 months of your discovery of the condition is critical to preserving your claims under the statutory warranty. And, even though the contractor is out of business you can still sue it and get a default judgment against it. Then, you can conduct post-judgment discovery and hopefully determine the name of the insurer and potentially garnish the insurer. Then, even if any judgment you get is uncollectible, you may be able to get some relief from the Contractor's Recovery Fund. It's a drawn-out process, but I have been able to recover from the Fund in the past. Obviously, whether it's worth spending the money on an attorney to do all this, versus just biting the bullet and fixing the problem, is a big issue. Feel free to give me a call and we can walk through some of the issues.

Standard disclaimer: The comments above are based on limited facts and should not be considered legal advice. We do not have an attorney-client relationship. That said, good luck to you and let me know if I can be of further assistance.

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Answered on 5/16/12, 6:02 am


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