Demo Waiver for Collateral damage (hydro Breaker)

[norrodbh]

Anyone have customers sign a waiver to hold you blameless for any Collateral damage caused by using a hydraulic breaker for concrete demolition?

You know, bust up a patio slab, garage floor, and the woman's china collection cracks, or the plaster in the house cracks.

Would an executed waiver hold up to hold you blameless as long as you used the breaker appropriately?

I am doing a shop floor tearout, and would like to protect myself in the event the block walls develope cracks.

Anyone ? Any sample clauses?

Thanks,
Brent

 

[digger242j]

Wow. Good question.

You know, bust up a patio slab, garage floor, and the woman's china collection cracks, or the plaster in the house cracks.

It wasn't quite the same thing, but a few years ago I was digging a house foundation that was only five feet away from the existing house next door. I ran into some big concrete chunks, and ended up having to drop them on each other repeatedly so they'd break up small enough to load into the truck. The next day, the guy next door claims that the vibration knocked over a 400 damn dollar vase and broke it. (What kind of idiot pays 400 bucks for a vase anyway? ) For all I know his cat could've knocked it over, but the builder paid the $400. The moral of the story is, yes, you can be blaimed for breaking stuff you never even got close to.

As far as a waiver goes, I have no idea how binding it would be in court, but it can't hurt. If your contract, or an attachment to it, specifies that you're going to use that particular method and the owner has been advised of the potential for damage and allowed you to do it anyway (he could've insisted on 20 guys with hammers and chisels, right?), it seems like he's accepting the possibility of collateral damage as a condition of the contract.

 

[PSDF350]

Talk with your lawyer. He can advice you on what will hold up in court and what wont. But then on the other hand, everyone knows coffes hot but that didn't stop someone from sueing. And winning I might add. Damn lawyers. Truth is though everything holds up in court till it doesn't.