Abandon Trailer

[Jeff B.]

I’m a relatively new investor and looking to the BP community (which is great) to help me navigate my most recent lesson and potential actions.Let me explain.Just over a month ago I bought my second rental property, a duplex in a nice part of town.The property lacked general maintenance and was one of the reason’s I was interested in the property in hopes to force some equity. During the purchasing negotiations, the previous owner was required to have a new roof installed.This was good or so I thought.What I didn’t foresee was that they used a less then admirable contractor. The work looks good, but as they were completing the job we were right at closing.  At closing I received the lien waiver and receipt for the work completed.The problem was that the contractor had not removed all of his equipment from the property.The next day they removed one of their two trailers. I “thought” they would come back and get the second in the next few days.Unfortunately four weeks went by and despite certified letters and phone calls to the previous owners from the realtor, it was never removed.Ultimately I paid a guy $275 to make it disappear.

Obviously, I have not been happy having to deal with this problem for the last month and the fact that I had to pay for its removal is maddening.Especially since I feel that both realty companies, the previous owner and the contractor all walked away with my money and I was left holding this bag.In the future I will not make this mistake.But, my question to BP is whom should I attempt to get reimbursed? I have considered taking title company to small claims court since they provided me the documentation and or the previous owners.BTW, the roofing contractor has turned into ghost and doesn’t respond to anything.Maybe I should just let it go and just take the minor loss and chalk it up to experience.

What would you advise?