Butch, the city is NOT liable for this, believe it or not. The contractor is required to have a certain amount of liability insurance as well as being bonded. Cities write these bid documents covering their butts. They state that the contractor is liable for any and all screw ups. I have dealt with this way to many times, its always on the contractors back, not the cities. Municipalities have a thing called tort immunity that covers their asses.

dud take the money they offered you and rebuild.. You wasn't going, nor have you started any repairs, you heard about it and now you see dollar sign's $$$$$$$$. and you know I'm right!

The City acted like they did every thing right and may have. They hired this guy though. That makes them just as liable as the contractor. They have insurance for things like this. The city needs to step up. Get an appraisers to give a value. Which will not be much due to the condition of the house. Turn it over to their insurance. Let the insurance company handle it. That's what they get paid for. Let them recover from the contractor. This is a simple damage case. Their will be no milking as a lot of nuts will say. He is only due what he is damaged and probably legal cost of recovering it. No pain and suffering and all that other stuff that goes with personal injury. I think the biggest thing being left out is why didn't they just call the insurance in right off. The city or contractor should have right off. Maybe someone didn't have any. That would fall on the city as they are responsible for checking these things. You hire someone you have to make sure they have their responsibilities in order. I'll bet one of the requirements for getting a contract with the city is to have liability insurance. Simple insurance claim. That's all this is.

Must have been a run down property for the contractor to mistake it for the one meant for demolition. The neighbors are probably happy.

It must have been a pretty run down property for the contractor to mistake it for the one meant to be demolished.

Yes, because violence and threats of physical harm are totally the way to go in civilized society. Bravo, NativeSon, on making yourself look so wonderfully educated. If the contractor is offering to clean up the property *and* replace the demolished home, then I don't see the problem. Just another example of someone trying to milk a situation for everything he can get.

You just have to have the proper negotiation strategy! "Youngblood you have twenty-four hours to give me my money or I bury you in a concrete coffin in the Arkansas River!" Then twenty-five hours later follow through.