She called her insurance company right there. I called mine. I also called Asheville City Code Enforcement and filed a report for structural hazard, which meant the city had to come out and assess whether my property was now a safety risk. It was. They red-flagged it within 2 days, which created an official record establishing that the wall was necessary infrastructure, not decoration.
Here's the first legal financial trick, and write this one down. When someone damages structural property, file with your city's code enforcement immediately. Their written assessment becomes evidence that the court trusts more than your contractor's opinion. Delores's insurance adjuster came out 4 days later, assessed the damage at $14,200 to rebuild the wall properly, plus $1,800 for the drainage repair. Total, $16,000.
I had two independent contractors quote the job. Both came in higher. I picked the more thorough bid at $17,400, which my own insurance company approved after reviewing the code enforcement report. Delores's insurance paid. Case closed, I thought.
I thought wrong. 3 weeks after the wall repair was complete, new mortar still faintly white against the weathered block, smelling like wet concrete and fresh wood sealer, I got a letter. Not from Delores's insurance, from an attorney. Preston Hartwell was suing me. The claim, my retaining wall was built in violation of county setback ordinances and constituted a road hazard.
His attorney argued the wall's placement was responsible for the accident. Preston was seeking $45,000 for emotional distress, vehicle damage, and personal injury. His injuries, as listed in the complaint, consisted of a bruised knee and what his doctor's note described, without apparent irony, as general anxiety following a stressful event. I read that letter three times. Then I laughed for about two minutes straight.
Then I called my attorney. The game, as they say, was on. My attorney is a woman named Beverly Okafor, late 40s, sharp as surgical steel, the kind of lawyer who reads HOA governing documents for fun on weekends, and finds actual errors. I'd used her twice before for HOA disputes. She charged $275 an hour and was worth every penny.
I sat across from her in her office, wood-paneled, smelling of old books and a faint trace of the coffee she drank constantly, and slid the lawsuit across her desk. She read it. Didn't say anything for a while. Then she looked up. "His knee," she said.
"His knee," I confirmed. "The wall was 6 ft inside your property line." "Correct." "County permit on file, pulled before I broke ground." She leaned back.