I bought an old home a few years ago in which many things were not up to code. I had a contractor in to do some remodeling, and in the course of the trim work, he put a finish nail into a copper plumbing pipe. Apparently the nail sealed the hole for a while, but just in the past 3 months it started to leak. I fixed the problem myself and there wasn't much damage.
I called the contractor and he claimed since the copper pipe wasn't centered in the stud, and thus not done to code, he wasn't responsible. I feel that since it wasn't leaking before he started working on the house, and it was his nail that caused the leak, he is ultimately responsible regardless of whether the plumbing was to code or not. I am hoping to settle this dispute and I haven't been able to find any authoritative legal precedent. Does anyone have any ideas on this?
Many Thanks, Kevin