[tx] Reasonable Suspicion Contractor Caused Damage To My Home And Is Being Difficult

Location: Texas

Wife and I moved into first home about eight months ago. A month ago guy knocks on our door, wearing construction outfit and looking for previous owner (gave first and last name). When I told him they don’t live here anymore, he explains they had verbally agreed to do some paving/hot asphalt work on the driveway (before we moved in). He says he was doing work on a big job for a nearby highway and couldn’t finish the job due to malfunctioning equipment. He offered us a discount to do our driveway because otherwise he’d be out a lot of money as the asphalt had already been heated.

Red flags immediately going off that this was a scam, but I had been going insane trying to keep the driveway nice by pulling weeds and buying product to kill the grass growing on it. We plan on living here long term so figured it was worth the investment to get the driveway paved and sealed. We verified he worked for a legitimate company and researched the price per square yard he offered and confirmed it appeared to be a good deal. Unfortunately I didn’t have the previous owner’s contact info to verify their verbal agreement but we felt comfortable with what we researched at the time.

Anyway, the house has a spigot/hose about 100ft from the home where the driveway connects to a couple car ports. This is the hose they used for the job. This is important for later.

When the job was complete, I walked out there to check the driveway and measure everything out with him. There was a bit of water puddled by the hose and I asked about it. His response was that his crew accidentally left the water running for too long. Okay no problem, anyone living in texas knows it will evaporate quickly with the heat here. I still took pictures and videos of everything to document.

It was a holiday weekend so we were not home for a couple days after the job was complete (they wrapped up Thursday). We come back to find even more water and immediately go inspect to find a water leak from the hose. 2-3 inches of water everywhere on the driveway and backyard. I couldn’t initially hear the leak from the spigot when contractor was here because there were heavy machinery operating and it was loud. I took his word for jt.

We call an emergency plumber (holiday hours) and collectively with the increase in water bill incur a little less than $1K in repairs. I intentionally wanted the plumber’s professional opinion in writing if he believes they caused it, but unfortunately plumber says the previous owner did a shitty DIY job on the plumbing for that hose. So the reality is it was a problem waiting to happen, the contractor just exposed it with the heavy use.

I’ve tried multiple times contacting the business number and contractor ‘s personal cell, and can’t get him to come back out to inspect the driveway (I researched that standing water after freshly installed hot asphalt can lead to long term damages, cracks, etc.). He keeps dodging with excuses of “he’s slammed” and not giving me a time window he’d be available. Could be true but I’m obviously skeptical at this point.

I also requested insurance via phone (in hindsight should have done this before accepting the job) but his invoice says they’re bonded and insured. He said he would give it to me and that was days ago. He’s clearly dodging me but I also can’t concretely prove he caused the damages. There’s just a strong correlation between the leak and when they did the job.

Regardless, the work obviously has a 12-month warranty and he’s not honoring it by coming back to do an honest inspection from the water.

Do I have a case here? He’s being difficult when I’ve tried to be reasonable (I did politely request insurance information and the plausible damages resulting from the job) and he won’t give it to me. Do I send a demand letter via certified mail? I feel wronged but not sure if it’s worth going to small claims over less than $1K.