A listener wants to know how long she has to file a warranty claim if she didn’t know there was a problem? I’m Amy E. Feldman.
Listener Julie C. sought an estimate for new siding on her house. The siding contractor pointed out that the trim around her windows, which was installed by a different contractor nine years ago, was actually two different shades, but the trim only had a two year warranty. She wants to know if she’s still held to that if she didn’t realize there was a problem until now.
Julie, there are some legal time limits that don’t start running until you’re aware of a problem, like if a surgeon left in a surgical sponge and you didn’t realize it until a new doctor told you, your time to file a lawsuit wouldn’t be based on when the malpractice happened but when you knew or should have known that there was a problem. But where a defect is visible to the naked eye, the fact that you didn’t notice until now doesn’t mean the time to file a claim stopped ticking or that you get a pass on the time limit. Still, if it’s any comfort, if you didn’t notice, probably no one else who looked at your house did either.
Leave a Reply