I got this glass cooktop that a contractor broke a chunk off of during work. It’s like 20 years old so I would rather get a new one than to try to have it repaired at this point. But I also don’t want to let the contractor off the hook because of that and in my opinion they definitely owe me something because they broke it and I would have still been using it had they not done that.
ask them to reimburse for the cost of repair. then use the cash to offset the cost of purchasing new. they should be covered by business liability insurance.
Step 1a: get cost of comparable replacement
Step 1b: get estimate of cost to repair
Step 2: Get a lawyer to draft a letter on their letterhead and send to company asking how they propose to address their error
Step 3: . . .
Step 4: “Profit”
While Step 2 might result in a little OOP expenses, it’ll make the rest of the process go much, much faster.
Generally speaking the contractor is responsible for the lesser of the cost to repair or replace with a comparable item. Find out the two costs and then talk to them. They have different options. They can pay you out in cash and file a claim with their insurance. They could pay you in cash and not file with insurance. They could file with insurance and have the insurance company issue you a payment. They can try to negotiate some other form of settlement. They could ignore you. So follow whatever process they have for a reasonable amount of time. After that, file in small claims court for the statutory maximum and let the court decide how much they owe. Tell the court that since they are the conscious of the community, they should award you some punitive damage beyond your actual damages as a result of them being unwilling to accept responsibility for their mistake. Them ignoring you is the only way to potential profit so hope for that one. You can also file a claim with your homeowners insurance and then go after the contractor for the deductible.
Note that a letter from a lawyer’s office will generally ensure that things happen in a reasonable amount of time (and result in far fewer headaches).
I believe the word you’re looking for here is “conscience”.
I don’t think you can get punitive damages in small claims court.
#1 Letter from a lawyer’s office will ensure that they will not ignore you. #2 Your homeowners insurance will likely go out to get the subrogation from the at fault party; and their first dollars of recovery are to paid to the policyholder for the deductible.