Homeowners Wage Legal Battle Over Oil Leak

Steve Kritzberg and Lynn Eskanazi of Lido Beach continue to wage a legal battle to have a flood of home heating oil removed from their crawl space and soil that settled there eight years ago.

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The estimated 1,000 gallons of oil came from a neighbor’s leaky fuel tank, and the couple is still battling with their  neighbor’s insurance companies as they repeatedly move elsewhere to live when the stench becomes unbearable. The contaminated soil on their property is 10 feet deep and their legal fees and expert fees have cost them more then $1million, according to CBS News. 

"We have been trying since October 2005 to resolve the situation of excessive oil under our home which came from our neighbor's underground heating tank,” Eskanazi told Patch.  “My husband, children and I have suffered greatly.”

In 2006, Hannover Insurance signed an agreement to clean the couple’s property up to a maximum of $300,000, but the money never materialized, according to according to ABC. Last year, Hanover, One Beacon Insurance and Kritzberg and Lynn Eskanazi all agreed to settle, with both insurance companies agreeing to demolish the home, perform remediation and rebuild the home at the order of a state Supreme Court judge. But the couple said the insurance companies have reneged by claiming the oil is going away itself. The couple’s hired expert geologist, however, said the oil will stay, according to CBS News.  

Eskanazi told Patch that she and her husband are concerned about the health and financial future of their family. They have spent more than $1 million on lawyers and environmental experts to help them with their case, wiping out their sons’ college funds and her parents’ retirement accounts in the process, according to ABC News.

“Hopefully, Hanover and One Beacon Insurance will move forward with the stipulation agreement the judge so ordered, and all parties have signed, to finally bring this ordeal to a much needed end,” she told Patch.

One Beacon insurance would not comment on the reason for the hold up, and Hannover Insurance said it has made very reasonable offers to remediate the property and continues to try to reach an agreement.

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