What steps should I take once I have been affected by water damage?
The first thing to do, unless there's an emergency and you need to do something to stop the water that's still flowing or something that's about to collapse, is to document what's happened. Take photos, make a videotape, take some notes so that you have a good record of exactly what the situation looked like before you started remedying the situation and cleaning it up.Obviously, if there's an emergency, you're going to deal with the emergency first, and then document matters later. You're going to want to try to go back next and determine what the source of the problem was. Again, you want to document this: photographs, videotape, notes, maybe even witnesses to accompany you as to what happened.If you're having trouble determining the source, you're going to want to hire an expert to help you. You make want to get a lawyer involved before or after hiring that expert, but sometimes it is a good idea to do it before. The lawyer may know somebody that he feels is competent and makes a good witness for you if you really think that there's going to be claim and that the damage is sufficient that it warrants doing that. So, you may need that expert to help you determine what the source of your problem is so that you can either end the problem, shut off that flow of water or whatever it is that's causing the problem or, at least, prevent it from happening again in the future. Once you've done those things and you've determined what your rights are, you want to contact the neighboring owner who may have caused the problem. You want to talk about, obviously, two things: making certain it doesn't happen again and compensating you for losses you have suffered on this particular occasion.
