What is included
Calculating reinstatement costs, damage to finishes, furniture, appliances and property, and associated costs.
Work begins with analysis of the documents and circumstances: when the flooding occurred, where the water came from, which rooms were damaged, who was present at the inspection, what the incident record states and what evidence is already available.
What an expert can do
- inspect the premises and document damage;
- compare the damage with the suspected cause of flooding;
- prepare a schedule of defects and damage calculation;
- describe damaged finishes, property and traces of moisture;
- check an existing report or opinion;
- help formulate questions for a court-appointed expert examination.
What a lawyer can do
- identify the proper defendant: a neighbor, management company, homeowners' association, housing construction cooperative, contractor, developer or several parties;
- prepare a pre-action claim and set of attachments;
- file a court claim and claim litigation costs;
- challenge an inadequate incident record, understated valuation or incorrect findings;
- prepare motions and questions for the court-appointed expert;
- assist with enforcement of the judgment.
Cost
from 25 000 ₽. The final price depends on the area, number of rooms, quantity of damaged property, complexity of the cause, urgency, need for a site visit and court work.
From the schedule of defects to the scope of reinstatement work
The reinstatement calculation must relate to established damage. For each item, it is important to understand which area was affected, what operation is necessary, in what quantity and why that particular method was chosen. The total room area does not always match the damaged area or the area that technically needs reinstatement.
The input data should retain information about the finishes before the incident: materials, construction of the covering and supporting documents. If the exact material is unknown, this is stated in the calculation. Replacing a damaged element with an option of substantially different characteristics requires a separate explanation, rather than being included in the estimate without drawing attention to it.
- Link each calculation line to the damage reference number and photographs.
- Separate removal, substrate preparation, reinstatement and associated operations.
- Check that the same work is not repeated in several sections.
- For property, retain the model, completeness, nature of damage and repair information.
- State the date and sources of the cost data used to prepare the calculation.
The technical need for repairs, their calculated cost and the amount claimed address different issues. The calculation allows reinstatement operations and input prices to be checked; the legal grounds for recovery are considered separately. If another party's calculation is presented, it is useful to ask about specific differences in quantities, methods and input data, rather than just the difference between the totals.
For repeated leaks, damage is grouped by incident and the dates of available documentation. The same area may appear in several incident records, so areas and reinstatement operations are not added together automatically. If the effects cannot be separated using the materials provided, this is stated explicitly. Clarifying the background here is more important than formally expanding the list of work through repeated descriptions.