My boat damaged the city's dock, they sent a bill for $2900. what can i do?

Question

my boat, caught on fair and burnt a section of the dock at the park. a few weeks later, a bill comes in the mail for $2900. i did no reply to their letter as yet, as i am gathering information on how i should proceed.

number 1, i dont have $2900 to pay them.

do i HAVE to pay them?

what if i dont?

what can they do?

i dont have a social security number, so i am not worried about bad credit or any of that stuff.

if i have to pay them, would they put me on a payment plan? can the amount be lowered to a more reasonable price?

thanks in advance for your answers.

Answer 1

do you have insurance   if you do send them the bill with and expanation  if you dont and they have nothing on you  forget it but they set you the bill so they no who you are    ask them for a payment plan   if worst comes to worst and a itemized bill for what was done to the dock after all your paying for it

Answer 2

Send the bill to your boat insurance company. Don't have insurance? Then they can sue you if your don't pay.

Answer 3

first of all i feel sorry for you , because more than likely you will have to pay for this. I do not know where you are at but if you were in Florida you would have to pay, if you had insurance they would have to pay. You can try speaking with an attorney, but you will probably lose and have to pay the lawyer too.  

Not to be rude why would they offer you to fix it, do you know the building codes, do you think they would let you work on government property. after all you could not fix your boat why would they want you to fix a dock that thousands of people will be on and sue the city when they fall through it, because it was not repaired correctly.

Answer 4

Take a $100 with you and go to city hall and ask for their 24 mth payment plan and here is the first payment. Tell them The Donald sent you. The USA will treat you fair as long as you are willing to accept your responsibility. If not how do you look in Orange?

Answer 5

My advice is to contact a lawyer.  

You are responsible for any damage done by your vessel.  Just because you do not have the money does not make it right for you to not be liable.  The city could file judgments against you, not just file against your credit rating as well as having you arrested.  

You would be better off, if you do not want to go through a lawyer, to make contact with the city and offer to repay at a rate you can afford, at least that would show you are willing to make payment.  

Again  I am not a lawyer and this is just my opinion made by my knowledge and experiences.

Answer 6

Call your insurance company.

Or, offer them a payment plan.

Answer 7

If you had insurance, turn it over to the insurance company.

They didn't just pull the number $2900 out of the air, so no you will not get it reduced.

The next step for them is to sue you. At that time, you can go to court and plead your case and ask for a payment plan. At which time if you are an illegal, they will say no. If there is another reason you don't have a SS#, they will probably say yes. If you don't show up, they will simply file a judgment against you, which will show on a credit file for ten years or until paid. If they get a judgment, there are ways for them to collect on it, but I doubt they will for that amount. Once it goes to court, there will be additional court fees and interest.

The only other option is to contact them and ask for a payment plan. They may or may not do it.

Answer 8

Do you have to pay-

Depends

What if you don't? (Do anything)

They can charge you with abandoning property and endangerment and throw you in jail or fine you ungodly

What can they do?

See above

The deal is, you need to hire a lawyer. If your boat caught on fire as a result of something you did and then you are indeed in debt to the city. Yes, legally, they have to offer a payment plan.

However, if a powerline near the boat busted and dropped onto the boat, then it's the city's responsibility to pay you for damage to your boat.

So, talk to a lawyer, see if someone can take the case pro-bono, or see if a law student could defend you with a supervising attorney. You will also need your own investigator to provide independent oversight about what happened. It's unfair for the city to use an inspector that they have employed because that is a bias oversight, and you need independent oversight. (You need an independent contractor) The lawyer will cover it.

Good luck!

Answer 9

Turn it in to your boat's insurance company. If you do not have insurance on your boat, sell it, and pay for the dock and put the rest of the money into a savings account, and consider yourself lucky that you did not injure someone. This will be a not-too expensive lesson for you.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 10

do you *have* to pay?  No, you have a debt, but it's always your choice whether to pay your debts or not.

The worst that can happen is, they can throw you in debtors prison until your family comes up with the money.

Just kiddin, no debtors prisons in the USA.

What can they do?  If the reason you have no social security number is that you're an "undocumented worker", then the worst they can do is deport you to your country of origin.

Now that your boat has been destroyed, you have no assets (except maybe the laptop you're reading this on) - you're basically what a lawyer (which I am not) would call "judgement proof", meaning that no matter how hard they come after you they can't get anything.  No SSN means no bank account, no job, I'm wondering how the heck you could afford a boat.

~~~~~~~~

Edit:  on further consideration...they might decide to turn it over to Homeland Security (have you ever visted Afghanistan?).  You might qualify for an indefinate all-expenses-paid vacation in sunny Guantanimo Bay, Cuba!

Answer 11

Your boat insurance should cover it.

No insurance??  they can sue you for the amount and claim your income, well.... here they can.

Answer 12

Tell them that you have no money ,no home ,no food, and could they get you a place to stay for awhile and some food stamps for food to make up for the fact their dock caused your boat to catch on fire, or if you were not there at the time, you could say that an unknown arsonist set it on fire and the city should reimburse you for your losses since they are covered by insurance for these type of things. If that fails tell them that you can't get blood from a turnip, because it has none, and you can't get money from Terrance, because he has none. If all this fails- they will set up a repayment plan- good luck I was just trying to inject a little humor in the situation.