<p>Wow! The photos are unbelievable. I’m wondering, though, whether the house can be repaired. Does the condemnation mean that it must be torn down, or just that it can’t be occupied until it is fixed? Clearly, it is not a safe place to live at the moment.</p>
<p>The owner is 96, AND she lived there with her 94-year-old sister.</p>
<p>The vehicle is owned by the parents of the driver’s boyfriend, and I read that they live in a “mansion.” Presumably they have assets and could be sued for damages above the insurance coverage.</p>
<p>I’m really glad the occupants of the house and the car weren’t seriously injured. There could have been a collapse or even a fire or something. It’s a little bit of a miracle.</p>
<p>The reason that a LI house is pricey is the value of the land/area. The actual costs of constructing/reconstructing a house don’t vary as much around the country as the value of land does.</p>
<p>Exactly! It’s the LOT that has the high value in pricey areas. The construction of the home (unless quite large) won’t be THAT high. As someone who is building a small home right now, the cost of construction isn’t that much…about $100 a square foot…it’s the land that gets you. Small lots in pricey areas can cost as much as half a million.</p>
<p>Okay, I just had this exact thing happen to us at work. A guy got drunk, drove his truck right through the side of our barn and out the other side. Did about $60,000 worth of damage. I reported it to the insurance company that insures our barn. They came out, took the report and told us that it was his auto insurance company that would pay us. Sure enough, with 6 weeks I had a check for $60,000 from his auto insurance company. Don’t know and don’t care who paid for the damage to his truck. And what the insurance company pays is to repair it to make it like it was before it was struck. Not the purchase price. Replacement cost would be covered under your homeowner’s but you would have to file that as a secondary claim, after the drunk’s auto insurance pays you the repair cost.</p>
<p>I don’t know how insurance laws work from state to state and policy to policy, but I have personally known of damage payouts for DUI situations. As for property damages, if you have the insurance and the person violated has insurance, the companies will either work it out or tell you who pays. Often times in cases I have seen , if you are fully covered, your insurance could pay and then get reimbursed by the other person’s insurance company.</p>
<p>Probably with good reason, because the results can offer differ markedly. Just last weekend, we had an incident in town where the driver in question had a .16% breath test at the scene - and a .276% when they drew blood at the hospital.</p>
<p>It’s important to instruct the kids not to let others drive their cars or mom’s or dad’s car. If they can not drive themselves due to under influence, call a cab (or parents). If you lent them the car folks, you should be prepared to pick them up somewhere if they can’t drive it. Even if the car’s owners did not “allow” the girl to drive it, they may get stuck here since the son probably had permission to use it, and he let the girl use it.</p>