There’s No Place Like Home

How often did you hear the phrase that home ownership was ‘The American Dream?’ You finished school, got a job, rented some hovel for a couple of years while you saved up. And then the great day arrived and you became a member of an exclusive fraternity: you were a homeowner.

A week later your dream began to crack when you found out what a damper is, because yours was closed when you lit your first romantic fire and your house filled with smoke. Then, while your entire family was at your house for the christening of your first child, your hot water heater chose that exact moment to fail and flood your basement.

And so it goes for the next 30 years. Not only do you pay for the house itself, but with the interest on your mortgage, you pay for it twice. Then there is annual homeowners’ insurance, and my favorite one: real estate taxes. I have paid more real estate taxes than I paid for my home, and the end is nowhere in sight.

So with this month’s magazine theme being about fixing up your home, I wanted to get my bias out ahead of my advice. Being a homeowner is 99 percent satisfying, but when the other 1 percent arises, it can be very frustrating. Sometimes you make decisions about fixing up your home that are purely cosmetic, such as painting or landscaping. But there are other times when the repairs are necessitated by something else, such as the weather. It is those outside forces that bring us together for these few moments today.

What happens when your water heater cracks and floods your basement? You turn off the water supply, call a plumber, take photos, and call your insurance company. Opening up a claim will not cause your premiums to rise, nor will the insurance company cancel your coverage. But if you find out that something of value was damaged, they will help. This is where you learn about your ‘deductible.’ If your damage is $1,500 and your deductible is $500, then the insurance company will pay you the $1,000 difference. Your deductible is the amount of any loss that you agreed to bear when you bought your policy.

What if someone is walking their dog in front of your property and trips and falls over a crack in your sidewalk? Again, this is a homeowners’ insurance issue. But if you live in an area with a homeowners’ association or a condominium association, you should put them on notice, since the sidewalk might be part of the common area that is covered under the association’s liability insurance policy.

What happens when the neighbor kid who cuts your lawn sprains his ankle when he steps into one of those invisible chipmunk tunnels? If the grass is being cut by a commercial company, the guy’s injury will be covered by his employer’s insurance. But if you engage the services of a boy from the neighborhood, this will fall under your homeowners’ policy.

What do you do when the surveyor tells you that the fence between your property and your neighbor’s property is on both? If it is your fence that goes on to the neighbor’s land, your attorney will tell you to move it, and you will dutifully take his or her advice. If it is the neighbor’s fence that is on your land, your attorney will tell him to move it and then the fun starts. If he chooses to move it without incident, peace prevails. If he takes a confrontational approach, then court action ensues and everyone spends a lot of money to resolve the problem.   

The reason that these issues are so thorny is that they affect the ability to sell or refinance homes. A survey dispute will halt a real estate closing in its tracks. I remember getting a call at home early one morning from a local police officer who was watching my client cut off wooden fence posts with a chainsaw. The client had a closing scheduled for 10 a.m. that day, and the survey had shown the neighbor’s fence to be on my client’s land, thus threatening the closing. My client asked his neighbor to move or remove the fence posts, and even offered to help dig up the offending posts and relocate them, but the neighbor chose to argue. My client resorted to ‘self-help’ by simply cutting down the posts, thus curing the problem and allowing the closing to proceed as planned.

Please do not think of this article as legal advice upon which to rely in a controversy. If confronted with a situation involving your home or property, it is always wise to consult with an attorney, give him or her the facts, and follow the advice you are given.

Christopher M. Abernethy has been practicing law in Hampton Township since 1976. He focuses on elder law, which includes wills, trusts, powers of attorney, living wills and probate matters. He also is proficient in all aspects of real estate law and business law. He is a member of the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys and the AARP Legal Services Network. He can be reached at 412-486-6624 or by email at cabernethy@aaylaw.com.