ᐅ Surge Damage – Effort Required

First of all, my condolences for the difficult situation.
Definitely involve experts or, even better, an independent assessor—I say this without any criticism. You never know what else might have been damaged.
They can also tell you if the main utility connection is still intact overall.

Anything you can prove (with invoices or assessment reports) can be submitted as a claim. Whether the insurance will actually accept everything is another matter. Private time, I don’t think so, or at best a flat rate. Trips probably only if documented with a mileage log?

Prager91 schrieb:

What annoys me the most is the TV... It was worth 600€ new 6 years ago, but now it’s probably only worth about 100€, even though it would have definitely lasted me another 3 years. Of course, I’m not going to buy a cheap TV now for 300€, but rather something I planned to get in 2-3 years anyway (retail price around 1,000€). In the end, you’re stuck with these extra costs, and the question is: How much will the insurance actually reimburse me? 🙁

It’s really unfortunate with a new build. For the TV, you only get the current replacement value. If in doubt, I’d just buy a used one first, for example through online classifieds like eb** Kleinanzeigen.

And regarding the electrician, if an assessor from their insurance company inspects it, I wouldn’t find that sufficient: the easiest solution would be to have a different electrician perform an “E-Check” (electrical safety inspection) and test all the wiring. That costs around 400 euros (about 430 USD) and then you have everything documented independently.

No offense, but how do you assume the construction went smoothly? How can you be sure that almost everything doesn’t have some sort of defect? Your two points really shouldn’t occur. On one hand, the electrician should have created a proper testing report, which would have revealed the issue. It’s the same with the sealing—the installer left parts unused with an attitude of “I don’t care.” I would be much more concerned that there are many other problems here.

Prager91 schrieb:

Since I’m no longer a builder but have already moved in, my standard property legal protection also applies.

Not exactly, you are no longer a builder. However, the builder’s legal protection insurance has a duration of 5 years, precisely covering the 5-year warranty period. Issues like the one you are currently experiencing would be well covered under that. That’s why I asked.

Chloe83 schrieb:

Not exactly, you are no longer the builder. But the builder’s legal protection insurance lasts for 5 years, precisely until the end of the 5-year warranty period. Issues like what just happened to you would be well covered during that time. That’s why I asked.

Yes, but this is not my fault. Ultimately, the contractor’s insurer is liable for the damage.

I would at most make use of my legal protection insurance that I took out for the property sector – so I can get advice if necessary, depending on what happens in the near future.

We will now meet again with our general contractor and review everything from start to finish, since he is our contact person and the party to our contract.

If any problems arise, I will involve a lawyer.

borderpuschl schrieb:

No offense, but how do you assume that the construction went smoothly? How can you be sure that almost everything doesn’t have some kind of defect? Your two points really shouldn’t happen. For one, the electrician should have created a proper test report, then the error would have been noticed. The same goes for the sealing; the installer had leftover parts and the attitude was "I don’t care." I’m actually much more concerned that much more might be wrong here.

Certainly, no homeowner can know for sure. We definitely had daily supervision on our part with fairly decent technical knowledge. Of course, it’s more difficult in the electrical field, and you can’t monitor every single step. The question is: who can? Our neighbors have a construction supervisor and seemed to have a new problem almost every week, but even those were only noticed AFTER the fact, meaning the issues were not detected during the actual work...

Without proper execution by each trade, damages cannot be avoided — that means you also have to “trust” each trade or at least hope that everything is done properly — especially for tasks that are not easy to inspect.

A loose wire (neutral conductor) would certainly have gone unnoticed by anyone, yet the electrician is required to test this thoroughly. Apparently, someone was either unwilling or took it for granted. This is an extremely rare case, something like one in 100,000 — but unfortunately, it happened to us.

The same story applies to the water damage. The pipe to the garage was quite sharply bent; they simply used the last multi-service fitting that was originally meant for gas. The sealing didn’t fit properly, and the craftsman probably thought, "Well, it’s basically sealed anyway, so let’s just leave it out," instead of reporting, "Hey boss, bring a proper seal, I can’t connect this like this."

Of course, there could still be other problems that remain "undetected"... But let’s be honest, should we go crazy over this? In these two cases, we were just unlucky. There’s nothing you can do about it... I don’t feel safe with this “electricity issue” right now and definitely want to get an independent expert opinion — I will insist on this through my general contractor. At least then this subject will be settled, or I will know exactly what needs to be done.