One of our little studios...fell down.

Tenant was sitting on her deck enjoying the evening. Heard a CRACK and then the house tilted backwards like a trailer with the tongue dropped. Luckily she was on the high side. No injuries.

No one was home, so she had to call the fire department to get her off. We got home a few minutes later.

Fire department, Sheriff, power company and building inspector come within minutes but it was getting very dark. Power company shuts everything down and removes the meter. Building inspector says you can go in to get her stuff tomorrow - I won't look - but of course she can't live there.

They are elevated on pilings as are most houses here, these are iron pilings. 2 holding the front corners of the house, I think more around the sides of the structure, and 2 more I-beams coming together in a V shape from back to ground. Not technically pilings, which are vertical and driven into ground, I don't know what you'd call this. A tongue. The steps covered it whatever it is.

Inside bookcase is tipped over and books scattered like the aftermath of an earthquake but nothing else seems damaged. Not much to damage, it's a tiny hut.

Of course her home is no longer her home and she's not a long-term resident either so no love built up yet. yikes.

Called insurance but probably not covered...their adjuster will be out next week. I'll call public adjuster on Monday.

Pilings not covered unless appropriately insured for flood or wind if damaged by flood or wind (they weren't) or by accident, like a car hitting them. Wear & Tear, Age, etc. not covered if what I am reading is true. :(

Wow, I'm so sorry. Corrosion is a real problem here (we are here right now). Our light fixture we installed about 4 years ago was completely eaten by rust. We purchased one at HD geared towards this climate.

Elevated 8-10 feet? Maybe? I'm short I don't know. I can walk under no problem, DH has to watch his head in some places (uneven sand underneath and more I-beams under the floor.)

Yikes!

Can you jack up the downed end, back to level?

Of course if one part went bad, the others need to be rebuilt too.

Curious to see how this works out.

Best of luck!

(You already had good luck - no injuries!)

BRAD

Yikes!

Can you jack up the downed end, back to level?

Of course if one part went bad, the others need to be rebuilt too.

Curious to see how this works out.

Best of luck!

(You already had good luck - no injuries!)

BRAD

New name for this home - "The Teeter Totter House"

I'll see myself out.

Looks like DS#3 will have a new project.

Happy that nobody was hurt for sure. You got lucky with that.

Sorry that it ruined your tenant's holiday, as well as yours.

Looking forward to hearing what the insurance does or does not cover.

For insurance reasons I hope the piling failed well below grade where it wasn't possible to do periodic inspections. You might be able to run new helical piles if you have enough headroom.

Sounds like to many years of indoor sports.

The vertical PILINGS that hold up the house (256 square foot studio) are iron I-beams bolted to concrete pads. Officially inspected and some spots re-welded and re-bolted about 20 years ago when we bought the place, but also visually inspected every day you walk past. AND they are fine - they did not fail.

Another I-beam that supports the floor itself was inspected maybe 6 years ago when we had the base covered in closed-cell foam for insulation. Also inspected every day you walk past and also fine.

At the back of the building is what I can only call a TONGUE, as on a utility trailer. Two iron I-beams that come together from the back corners of the hut to a point on the ground in a big V. They are completely outside the perimeter of the building. We never thought they held up anything, that they were maybe part of the original transport system. Even the wooden steps that cover them are fine and still standing independently of the building.

BUT it appears the tongue bent or something in the middle, which made the whole house tilt as would happen if you dropped a trailer tongue to the ground without any other support.

Surprisingly, House itself appears is still square and true, just tilted.

MAYBE since the point of failure was NOT the actual pilings, MAYBE insurance WILL cover (pilings not covered unless damaged by a covered event like flood or wind. This was not flood or wind or even accidental, like getting hit by car.)

Not likely to happen on any kind of normal house. These are unique little buildings.

I am calling a public adjuster on Monday just to be sure we do things right.

Just a reminder for every LL's possible insurance claims:

The ins co adjuster and agent work for THE INS CO, not YOU.

Read your policy (not hard) and KNOW what is covered so you can speak with knowledge.

They ALWAYS try to short the coverage so you ALWAYS have to argue for what you paid for.

BRAD

Thanks for the update.

What do you do about the tenant in this situation?

Did she have a place to go?

Do you refund any monies?

Not crawling, no. They've been really nice. Code Officer dropped by and told us get an engineer to tell us what to do. So the guy we've worked with before on ADUs is stopping by next week. House mover guy is waiting on engineer to tell him what to do. Insurance Adjuster stopped by at some point and took pictures. Who knows?

Not crawling, no. They've been really nice. Code Officer dropped by and told us get an engineer to tell us what to do. So the guy we've worked with before on ADUs is stopping by next week. House mover guy is waiting on engineer to tell him what to do. Insurance Adjuster stopped by at some point and took pictures. Who knows?