What would be the fair way to handle a mistake that we didn't cause but we are benefiting from?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is weird. Yesterday my husband and I came home from a visit to some of the family, and found we had a new garage door!

Yes, while we were away (we were gone from maybe 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) a contractor had swooped in, taken down our old garage door and installed a new one. We found a copy of the work order in our mailbox! It gave our correct address, but the name of the purchaser is actually that of our neighbor directly across the street. (Our number is just one higher, like they are 52 and we are 53.)

Obviously a clerical error or typo – the salesman misheard or mistyped the address, I can’t believe the neighbor gave the address wrong, who would make a mistake like that? He’s lived in that house about five years now.

Our garage door is, er, was very old. Original to the house which was built in 1965, so an older ‘style’ I guess. It worked perfectly fine still, though I noticed a while ago that another repainting of the window trim needs to go on this summer’s To Do list. Anyway, we had no interest in replacing it, now or in the near future. (A kitchen renovation is slated to suck up our next batch of remodeling funds.)

Apparently reinstalling our old door simply isn’t a possibility. They basically destroyed it in removing it, and the remains were junked, being too old to be worth anything so no care being taken in the process.

So, we have a new garage door we didn’t especially want. The style is okay though fancier than the old one (ours and the neighbor’s house are the same style built by the same developer) but the color isn’t exactly what I’d have chosen. (Our house is grey and white, the neighbor’s is buff and brown, and the garage door more a beigey-brown shade. Paint can fix that, I assume.)

Our neighbor paid for a new door he hasn’t gotten. He has his old door still, but he was replacing it due to one of his kids having had an accident while parking, so the contractor can’t just swap the current doors between our houses and maybe repaint. (Which otherwise we might be okay with, and probably the neighbor, too.)

The contractor of course is out whatever the labor cost of putting in the new door was, and the wholesale cost of the door and associated gizmos. And he still has to deliver and install the door the neighbor ordered. He acknowledges there’s been a mistake, but says the neighbor gave him the wrong address but anyway the neighbor got a printed bill of sale/order or whatever you call it that showed the address the door was to go to as ours and the neighbor should have noticed then that the address was wrong and it would have been immediately fixed, so the neighbor should bear some of the costs.

Neighbor of course disputes this. He was busy looking at the prices and the parts and style number and color and all, and that he’d given the right address and so it was the saleman’s screwup.

Our position is that, yes, we now have a newer and thus no doubt more valuable door than before so we’ve ‘benefited’, but we never asked for it. We had a perfectly functional door before this mistake happened, and shouldn’t have to pay anything for Whover’s screwup it was. In fact, likely we’ll be out of pocket a little and put to some inconvenience in having to paint the entire door instead of just the window trim that the old door needed.

So, what would be the fairest way to handle this? Just dump it all on the contractor and hope he has insurance for this type of thing? It doesn’t seem fair that we gained a newer, snazzier door (more elaborate windows and trim, basically, though maybe improved materials given the, wow, 60 years difference in age.) OTOH, why should we have to pay for something we didn’t want or order?

2

Of course you shouldn’t pay a cent. I think you should be gracious and not call the police or file a civil suit for the loss of your original garage door and the cost of repainting.

3

They did work on a house with no one home. The contractor eats it.

4

Maybe there’s some help here:

Roofing company tore off a perfectly good roof … on the wrong house. The mistake was caught but only after the old roof was off. Roofer provided the new roof for free.

5

I don’t see where you hold any responsibility. Let the other homeowner and contractor work it out. Arguably, you COULD claim damages that the contractor came onto your property and stole your existing door but that’d be pretty lame (and doesn’t seem to be anything you’d want to do anyway). You certainly don’t OWE anyone anything.

6

I’m puzzled as to how they installed a new garage door without anyone home. Did they basically break in to your garage?

7

Lol, yeah right. Like any lawyer is going to work on contingency in a case in which the monetary damages will potentially be below $500 and maybe even a negative number, or that the OP who is obviously not a rich person with money to waste, is going to pay hourly attorneys fees to litigate such a silly suit.

As for OP, you have no responsibility here. Let the homeowner who was supposed to get the new garage door sort it out. If that homeowner is lucky, he has not paid for it yet, or only paid a deposit. In that case he has a lot of leeway he can basically demand the contractor replace his door as agreed upon, for no extra fee, or he can just refuse to pay and go to a different installer. The contractor at worst could try to small claims him or send him to collections, but he could likely easily dispute those by showing evidence his new door wasn’t installed. If he’s already paid then he’s in a stickier situation if the contractor is refusing to do anymore work without some additional money being paid. But the only person with a complicated problem here is your neighbor and maybe the contractor, you don’t have one. You could try to get the contractor or neighbor to pay to repaint your current door, but I doubt it would be worth the trouble of potentially antagonizing a neighbor, and if the contractor refuses it won’t be worth the cost of a paint job on a garage door to push the issue.

8

Yeah, let the neighbor and the contractor decide between themselves (or with some impartial help) how to settle things. I don’t see how either of them can blame you; you didn’t even know anything was happening until it was too late.

I can see one situation you might consider. The contractor has to buy another fancy garage door and install on the house across the street. Depending on the costs of labor and materials, it might be cheaper for him to order a less-fancy door, install that on your garage, and take the door from your garage and move it across the street. That might be a way for the contractor to save some money, and for you to get a door you like better than the one that you didn’t order in the first place.

9

Before you do anything, I’d just check to make sure that the door can be painted effectively. They often use synthetic materials that are much more durable than wood and never have to be painted - but obviously the assumption is that you choose the exact color you want, and they won’t take paint well.

10

Yeah, that may be worth you talking with the contractor to see what’s happening, and if there’s a possibility the neighbor can take your door (that was color-selected more to match his house) and if you could get a replacement one (especially if you don’t care that it be one of the fanciest ones) that better matches your house. Either way the contractor (likely) is spending the same, or possibly less, money, so I could see him being on board. But he may value his labor more than the cost of the doors and not want to do basically what amounts to 3 installations for the price of one, so he may opt against.

11

This is perfect for small claims court.

12

It might be for the other homeowner, if the contractor has already billed him for the door he didn’t get installed and is insisting on charging him for another one. But for OP probably not, small claims is still going to give awards based on actual damages, which I think will difficult to demonstrate as being particularly significant in this case. OP got a professionally installed, free, new garage door. The only arguable damages to the OP is the door doesn’t match (color wise) his current house, so likely the only damages he would win in small claims would be the damages related to rectifying that, which might be as cheap as a couple buckets of paint.

The contractor likely committed trespass and destruction of property in his actions, so there is some argument OP could file a criminal complaint against them. However if the contractor has a “confusing” invoice, he likely would be able to have a good shot of getting the charges dismissed.

13

That’s his problem, not yours.

That’s generous of you to even consider, but I wouldn’t allow it. You had an old door that worked just fine and matched your house. I wouldn’t assume that an old door that doesn’t match and that was reinstalled by a disgruntled contractor would work as well or look as good. I’m glad for you that this isn’t an option.

It sounds like the neighbor authorized work on a house he doesn’t own and you were harmed in the process. You got a door you don’t particularly want and the door you had was destroyed.

I agree.

I wouldn’t assume that paint can fix it easily. As noted above, some of these materials aren’t designed to be painted.

What are the homeowner across the street and the contractor offering to do? And are you happy with that result? This sounds like the neighbor’s error, because he should have confirmed that the work order was right before he signed the contract. He (obviously) cannot authorize work on your home. The contractor should have taken more care in noting the neighbor’s correct address, so his negligence contributed to the neighbor’s error. You are not responsible for their mistakes.

If you are happier with the new door than the old one and they are happy fighting amongst themselves about who has to pay for the second door, just leave it be. If the contractor or neighbor wants the door on your garage, they should offer to pay to replace it with a new door that is acceptable to you since they destroyed your perfectly serviceable door. They should not expect that you would choose the same contractor to install the new door, so they should expect to cut you a check for the new door that you need only because of their mistake

Here is where the limits of my generosity would come in – I would agree to let negligent contractor remove the old door and replace the door with another door that is acceptable to me, provided he agreed to warranty the new door as usual. It would save him the labor, the markup on materials, and taxes on the installation as well as the indignity of paying a competitor to undo the work he already did. The contractor could also take the care he sees as appropriate to safeguard the old door during removal. If the neighbor or contractor is insisting that you pay for the door they installed, refuse.

A possibly contentious and aggravating outcome for you is if the contractor claims the work was duly authorized, insists that either you or the neighbor pay for it, and files a mechanic’s lien on your house when you both refuse. I don’t know the law in your jurisdiction on mechanic’s liens (and I’m not looking it up) so if it comes to this point, you may have to consult with a lawyer. Hopefully that costs less than a new garage door.

14

Oh, I wouldn’t do either! This is so clearly just an ordinary mistake, nobody was out to commit a crime. And I can’t imagine I’ve ‘lost’ anything of value in a 60 year old garage door, so long as there’s a new one there to close off the opening and keep out the rain and snow.

And the painting, I’ve repainted that door maybe four times since we took over this house. It takes less than a couple hours and a single can of paint. Not worth any fuss.

True, but the contractor was apparently told the neighbor might or might not be there (he’s semi-working from home now, occasionally having to make runs to the office/other sites) but he’d leave the garage unlocked and they could just start if he wasn’t there. So I guess when they saw there wasn’t a car there…

Looks like these kinds of mistakes just happen sometimes. Good to know the ‘beneficiary’ isn’t the one to pay!

No ‘breaking’ needed, just lift the door. The only times we bother locking the garage are when we’re going away on vacation or at least overnight. And not always then, we might forget. The garage doesn’t give access to the house, and this neighborhood has essentially no crime problem. If the car’s gone there’s nothing worth stealing in the garage. Some trash bins, a small gas lawn mower, snowshovels, an assortment of garden tools, a few cans of motor oil… Oh, and half a dozen boxes of miscellaneous household crap, you know, the stuff too valuable to throw out, but that you really don’t want anyway? I’m sure I’d have to pay a burglar to get him to haul it away.

They probably were trespassing though.

Absolutely not something I’d go for. We’re on good terms with all our neighbors and plan for it to stay that way. I mean, it’s not that we’re buddy-buddy hang out and BBQ together, but we all get along with no hassles or threats or arguments and that makes for a much more pleasant life. We’ve HAD neighbor hassles in the past, and never again if possible.

That is an EXCELLENT idea. I’d be happier with a plain door, and in the ‘right’ color anyway, and the neighbor gets what he wanted, and depending on how much price difference there is between fancy & plain the contractor benefits, too.

Another excellent point to check on, thanks!

True, but he’s already committed to two of the installs, so maybe. {fingers crossed}

15

I would inform the company and my neighbor. I would expect to keep the new garage door at no cost to myself because the mistake was theirs and not mine. Besides, they probably disposed of my old garage door anyway. Even if they didn’t and could reverse the process, there might be problems down the road because of all the disassembling and reassembling.

16

Keep the door and don’t pay anything. Re-doing the garage door is the cost of doing business for the company. Their shoddy businesses practices should not be rewarded. This costly lesson will teach them to double check when doing work when the homeowner is not present.

17

Not your problem. You could be nice and give something to the neighbor or the contractor because you did get a new door out of the deal, but I would be very cautious about that because you don’t want either one of them interpreting that as you being in any way responsible for the costs. Frankly, I don’t thinks it worth the cost of consulting a lawyer to find out how to protect yourself in a matter that you should never have to worry about in the first place.

18

This is clearly not your problem and not your responsibility. The neighbor and contractor will need to resolve this.

I’m shocked they started a job like this with no one home. That seems very weird. I don’t recall that being an option here for exterior work. Even the nursery/landscaper that built a berm for us in the last house, checked with us first before starting.

The contractor seems to be very careless.

19

Not your problem…but anytime I have ever had work done on my house, someone comes out before the work is done to take measurements, make sure the situation is as I described, and that the quote will be good. Even last year at the height of Covid, the gutter guy was here for half an hour discussing replacing some gutters and downspouts, getting a color match …and I assume DOUBLE CHECKING THE ADDRESS so the installers wouldn’t show up at the neighbors.

(Oh, I did come home once to a for sale sign in the front yard. I called my husband “honey, do you want to tell me something.” Then I called the realtor on the sign and said “you put this in front of the wrong house.”)

20

I agree with other posters that you absolutely don’t owe them anything. Certainly not legally, and I don’t think ethically.

And while I wouldn’t be an unreasonable jerk about it, I think it’s very reasonable for you to ensure that you really are completely comfortable with the result. If the color’s not exactly what you want, and it can’t be changed easily, do you feel okay with the outcome? Prior to the event, if somebody had offered you this suboptimal design & color for free, would you have said yes? If the answer really is “no”, then I wouldn’t hesitate to insist that they change it to the color you want. And either way, I think you’re entitled to the usual warranty that would come with the installation.