Original Post here

This was amusing to sit back and watch. My insurance company took care of me really well.

Sooooo here\’s what happened:

• Insurance provided a lawyer. He ran the issue up the flagpole to Sr. Counsel in the company as this was the first time he\’s ever seen something like this.

• Sr. Counsel looped in their outside legal firm that they use and got one of the Sr. Partner\’s involved.

• The HOA has a legal firm that represents them, sends collection notices, keeps the HOA\’s actions in check, etc. They joined the call too. This firm is the same firm that the home builder originally hired three years ago to oversee the HOA.

(The reason they got so many people involved is because IP is becoming an issue and they wanted to make sure that if they had to litigate this case or any other case like it in the future, they had experience spread across multiple people) Basically I was told that this case represents something potentially larger in the future.

So we have a small army of very smart legal minds on this issue.

We had a conference call with the legal department over at the home builder along with my small army.

The call started off as a really intense interrogation of the home builder.

\”Did StrangeHomeBuilder reach out to you and offer you the opportunity to bid on the rebuild…yes or no!\”…for example.

First ~15 minutes were uncomfortably tense. It was a scolding from \”my side\” to the home builder\’s legal department.

Finally some relevant questioning came, and \”The ship of Theseus\” was brought up as well as auto shops and how they repair cars. Basically they did not have an answer as to why they felt I/we were impeding upon their IP. They did not have any sort of well thought out answer as to how much change the new house needed to have in order for them to feel like their IP was not being infringed upon.

It was mentioned that they set the HOA rules up, and they state that the homes may not deviate from the general architecture of the neighborhood. So what is a homeowner in my position to do? No answer.

One of the insurance lawyers also mentioned that they do not want to see the home builder\’s name on a suit as it would put their name right in the media spotlight…\”and that would be a shame to see your company\’s name dragged through the mud…\”

In the end, they relented and agreed to drop the threat of the lawsuit.

So that\’s it. 22 minute call with a 15 minute scolding/lecture/belittling followed by them licking their wounds.