Since I was looking up my city's laws regarding the burned house and weeds next door, I found this in the "health and sanitation" section: It shall be unlawful for any person to keep on such person's premises, within the corporate limits or police jurisdiction of the city any hives for the storage of honey or where bees live or breed. Apparently bee keeping is not allowed in the city limits. Besides this, the only thing I found that could have been used for your situation (if the laws of my city were the same as yours) was this: (The city has the right)...to move or demolish buildings and structures, or parts of buildings and structures, party walls and foundations, when the same are found by the governing body of the city to be unsafe to the extent of being a public nuisance from any cause. I don't know if harboring a hornet nest would constitute an unsafe structure in this context or not. I also found specific and numerous laws about dogs, cats, livestock. There was also an article in the paper about how last week's city council resulted in the passing of an ordinance which would allow for a $325 fine for having mowed grass on the street in front of your house. So apparently it's not uncommon to have a very specific law to address a very specific issue. None of that other vague wording is needed. Good luck with your procedure and I hope you have a great (hornet-free) weekend!

Generally speaking, amounts received to compensate for damage to property are not taxable. Your settlement documnents should be drafted that way. You definitely need to check with the lawyer handling the lawsuit to make sure that he has done this correctly.

After reading the post over again, it says a contractor. 1st off, I would bet that he is a general contractor. I would also bet that moisture readings were not taken. I would also bet, he did nothing to ascertain that humidity levels were even proper at the time of installation. This bamboo I am guessing is a 1/2 inch or 5/8 inch solid. If so rarely is it the product as long as it is not a finish issue. With that said...I believe your installer should be the 1st call. If it was an internet sale, you will struggle to manufacturer representation. It will have to be a 3rd party inspector perhaps paid by the consumer. If it was a retailer who sold it, then they should be involved big time. They can get manufacturer representation involved..to even get these people involved..they will need to know moisture readings at the time of install and very few installers do that. I actually do not know of any that do it in my part of the state. The store does it for them or it will not get done. It is a prerequisite of any hardwood install.A general contractor may be a good guy..but not a flooring expert and many times they save you money until something goes wrong. We have many excellent ones in our area but not a one owns a 600 dollar meter to accurately measure that water content and ratio and that is critical to a job. Letting boxes sit in the area for 3 days is just not enough for a professional install. Hey, I live in the real world and understand that it is not always done...heck there are times we probably don't do it. I pay my salespeople 1 % extra if it is an installed hardwood as I pay that to make sure all pre steps are taken and I make them do it...document it...so when it blows up..I can point my finger at either the consumer or the manufacturer. We have recently implemented to where we actually give the consumer a humidity gauge prior to the install and let them keep it after the install.Many contractors just bang it in and pray for the best...That is why internet sales infuriate me as people will not get the installation service or manufacturer representation most times.There are some excellant wood installers out there who take the extra 10 minutes to do the test...but most (99%) do not. We have probably 10 wood installers that we use and not one of them that I am aware of ever used a meter..unless we do it. So with all of this said, yes I do think that 1st line of fire should be to the technician if not through a retailer. heck the manufacturer should not have to spend any money at this point prior to an installer or a retailer saying here is what I think is wrong or went wrong. !st off these 3rd party inspectors will ask many questions of the installation. He will not have a crystal ball to look back and see what was done. He will blame it on installation if he does not have installation facts and rightfully so. I still would like to know exactly what you mean coming apart. I believe you mean the wood is contracting maybe? Also, what part of the country do you live and what type of heat source do you have and exactly how long after install did it start and what did you 1st notice. Get you small claims action started. It will smoke him out of his hole. Good Luck

Several years ago, I got over $300 from a class action lawsuit against Toshiba on a laptop I had purchased from them. I might have felt strange about taking part if they hadn't treated me badly a few months before. I needed a diagram of where the screws were placed so I could take it apart to put in a new fan. They wanted big bucks to either send it in to them to fix OR a credit card on file so they could 'try' to help me via the phone, with absolutely no guarantees they could help, no money back if they couldn't. I used part of the money to pay someone locally to fix my problem. Shirley