It was the ultimate project management mishap. An Ohio homeowner said they came home to discover a demolition crew tearing apart their detached garage…even though nobody had hired anyone to demolish that particular garage.
The homeowner took to Reddit under the username Brief-Gur-1071 and shared their story. Their neighbor was having an old garage demolished and rebuilt. Clouding things up, however, was the fact that both garages could be accessed from the same alley—and the contractor apparently went to the wrong property.
By the time the mistake was discovered, the homeowner said the garage roof was gone, one wall was down, and some belongings inside got mixed into the musty, dusty demolition debris.
The crew stopped, but the homeowner’s problems—especially the financial kind—did not. The contractor’s insurance company has reportedly gotten involved, and there are already disagreements over how to make things right.
The Garage Wasn’t the Only Thing Lost
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My neighbor’s contractor demolished my garage by mistake
by
u/Brief-Gur-1071 in
legaladvice
Some of the items that disappeared in the destruction include tools and a bicycle. The insurer reportedly asked for receipts, but some of the items were purchased years ago, and the homeowner claims to no longer have them.
“I paid for temporary fencing and a storage unit for everything that survived,” the user wrote in their post, “but I really don’t want to keep paying out of pocket while their insurance drags this out.”
The homeowner said an insurance adjuster has suggested the company may owe only the garage’s depreciated value because it was old, rather than the cost of rebuilding it.
The foreman admitted the crew had made a mistake in front of both neighbors, according to the Reddit post. The homeowner further added that the city confirmed no demolition permit had ever been issued for their property.
Commenters Told the Homeowner It Was Time for Help
The homeowner turned to Reddit’s r/legaladvice community to ask whether to keep working directly with the contractor’s insurer or if they should hire an attorney.
They also wanted to know whether they could seek the cost of rebuilding the garage instead of accepting only what the insurer says the older structure was worth.
Commenters overwhelmingly urged the homeowner to speak with an attorney and contact their own homeowners insurance instead of trying to negotiate the dispute alone. The accidental demolition may be over, but the cleanup journey is not yet done.