Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Hello--this is awful! If it's true that the water company is the cause, your description is too kind to them, and yes, it sounds like you have claims, perhaps both negligence and nuisance, maybe a trespass claim, perhaps a takings claim if they are governmental, perhaps intentional torts if we can show they knew the inevitable consequences and continued. These would be pleaded as more than the threshold for circuit court, in other words not a small claim. I'd say a bit of factual investigation and a well-constructed lawyer letter is the next step, followed by (if they do little or nothing) a careful evaluation of whether to sue.

You can choose to place your bill payments in escrow--perhaps several months' worth--and attach bank statements showing you've done that, then say you won't release the funds till this gets resolved. They'll sue, or if you sue first they'll file a counterclaim, but this is the sort of thing you address with a preliminary injunction motion or even a TRO motion depending on how often it's happening. Of course we want to know exactly why they're doing this, what public purpose them claim to be serving, to what extent this consequence is avoidable, and what notice they claim to be providing. The water company will probably try to blame the customer somehow, so we'd want to look at what you've done to avoid the harm.

Alternatively you can call up your homeowner's insurance broker or carrier. Repeated claims for this damage will raise red flags for their own lawyers. If you've filed no claims, we can talk about whether to start now. Sometimes insurance companies will go after the utility company for you we can look into that.

Suing can be expensive, running into the thousands, but just writing a demand letter doesn't have to be. I'd charge a few hundred dollars, and we would demand recovery of that amount as part of any settlement. Write me if you like at [email protected]'m an experienced lawyer licensed in Va., D.C. and Md. Good luck whatever you decide. --Steve Pershing.