Beacon News

A few years back, Beacon Consulting Group was retained by a leading insurance company to help review a large construction defects claim being made by a condominium homeowner association. In this case, the insured party was the developer of a waterfront condominium complex located near the Atlantic Ocean. The Plaintiff (the homeowner association) was seeking $4.5 million in damages against the developer, claiming deficiencies in the construction had resulted in water damage to the complex.

The complex is located on the NJ shore and had suffered some water damage following several storms, including Superstorm Sandy in 2012, which was one of the most destructive hurricanes on record to hit the Eastern U.S. Beacon provided a variety of services to the insurance company when analyzing this claim, including:

• Reviewing and analyzing reports and claim summary information provided by experts hired by the plaintiff
• Assessing the total, realistic value of the claim based on a wide variety of information and materials available
• Developing an Construction Defect Expert Report for use by the insurance company's attorney, including a point-by-point analysis of reports developed by the plaintiff's expert
• Visiting the site to witness/monitor materials testing (destructive testing) being done related to the claim
• Identifying areas where insufficient maintenance and repair (and other factors) appeared to contribute to water-related issues at the complex

Beacon's team for the project included John Yeung, Bob Wittenberg, P.E., and other construction consulting staff members. In 2022, a $775K settlement was reached between the insurance company and the homeowner association. This is a major reduction compared to what the plaintiff was originally seeking.