In August of 2021, Pete Neubig found himself in a difficult position. After selling his business, Empire Industries, two years prior, he received a $1,000,000 lawsuit from a resident claiming that Empire Industries was negligent in handling a maintenance request related to mold issues.

The resident waited two years from the end of their lease to file the lawsuit, so even though the company had sold, Neubig was the registered owner when the lease was active.

After contacting his insurance company, Neubig realized he had purchased a claims-made policy. Since he terminated his policy in March 2020, the claim made in September 2021 was denied, even though the incident occurred while the policy was active. With a claims-made policy, the claim has to be completed and reported during the active policy period.

Because the lawsuit was based on Empire’s negligence in handling maintenance, it was imperative to find proof that maintenance requests had been handled properly and have the records to back it up. Thankfully, Empire Industries used Property Meld to manage its maintenance department.

Neubig reached out to Property Meld to see if there was a way to access the old data needed for the lawsuit.

Our support team realized his position, escalated his support ticket, and recovered all the data stored in Property Meld.

“I was so thankful. Then, the team told me there was no fee for the restoration, and Meld would not charge me any fees to keep the data until the lawsuit was behind me. I was shocked and so appreciative. The Meld team understands the business’s human aspect.” – Pete Neubig.

Inside Meld, Neubig found every work order and conversation from their company. In addition, every conversation between the vendor and the resident was stored in Meld. They also had date and time-stamped uploads, including reporting, photos, and invoicing.

With this data, Neubig could prove without a doubt that Empire Industries was not negligent in responding to the resident’s maintenance requests during their year lease. Saving him $1,000,000.

“I know their CEO, Ray Hespen, always preaches about data, but they are more than just data. They adhere to the platinum rule. We all know the golden rule: treat people as you want to be treated. The platinum rule is to treat people as you want them to treat your mom, ” said Pete Neubig.