
Boris Litvin kneels in his finished basement. The floor and walls were damaged in a flood caused by a washing machine install mishap, he said. Litvin points to an area that shows the floor separated and water marks on a pole in the basement. (Boris Litvin)
Boris and Tatyana Litvin have been waiting for three-and-a-half months for Sears and its subcontractors to act after the couple’s partially finished basement – with a wine storage area, a playroom, and storage space for household goods and utilities – was flooded.
It happened after an installer, hired by Sears, neglected to completely shut a water pipe, the couple said.
The delivery was made by a two-person team on June 3, Boris Litvin said.
First, a worker shut off the hot and cold water in the basement laundry room, Litvin said.
Next, the worker disconnected the ducts and water supply lines from the old appliances, he said, and the two workers removed the old appliances.

The receipt showing the delivery confirmation for June 3. (Boris Litvin)
“However, during the washer installation, I noticed a very big dent on the newly purchased appliance and asked the team to replace it,” Litvin said. “A team member made a phone call and took the appliance back up and loaded it into the truck.”
“After I tipped the crew, I returned to the basement to check on the new appliance and went on with my day after that,” Litvin said.

A photo of the Litvin’s basement floor as Boris Litvin tried to clean up the standing water. (Boris Litvin)
The next night at around midnight, Tatyana Litvin went to the basement to get a roll of paper towels.
She saw water and called her husband.
“I saw about two inches of water on the floor,” Boris Litvin said.
He said he immediately tried to suck up the water with a ShopVac and then he searched for the water source.
It wasn’t his sump pump, which was completely dry, Litvin said.

Boris Litvin said he put the dripping pipe into a utility sink as eivdence before he turned the water off. (Boris Litvin)
Litvin checked the water heater, which had water around it from the flood, but it didn’t appear to be the source. To be sure, the couple called PSE&G, with whom they had a service contract, and at about 3 a.m. the technician ruled out the water heater, Litvin said.
That’s when they saw it: The hot water for the washing machine wasn’t completely turned off.
After a night of cleaning up the standing water, Litvin called Sears to report the issue, and the case was assigned a claim number. He received a call a few days later from XPO Logistics, a company contracted by Sears to handle some deliveries and installations. XPO requested details of the damage on Sears’ behalf.
Litvin sent the information and photos, and waited.

The part of the estimate received by Boris Litvin that shows the total for the work that needs to be done. (Boris Litvin)
In the meantime, Litvin said, he received the replacement washing machine, which is now connected but sitting in the middle of the floor away from the damaged walls.
Still with no further word from XPO, Litvin called a remediation company for an estimate to repair the damage.
It would take more than $21,000 to put the basement back together again, the estimate said.

This image shows the height of the water against a closet door. (Boris Litvin)
The walls soaked up the water as high as two feet, the report said. There was damage to the wood floor, to the walls, trim and closet doors, and a cedar closet that Litvin said held “some fur coats, shearlings and other expensive clothing items.”
Litvin said he spent the next month-and-a-half trying to get answers from Sears or XPO Logistics, and he even tried to find the company’s liability insurer so he could make a claim on his own. He talked to several reps and they all said the same thing, Litvin said: “Your issue is escalated and you will hear from us in 48 hours.”

Boris Litvin says this photo shows mold that started to grow in his basement after the water pipe caused flooding. (Boris Litvin)
By July 22, still nothing.
“In the meantime, my basement got mold infestation which in turn presents a health hazard for my entire family,” said Litvin, who has two children ages 17 and 13.
That’s when he reached out to Bamboozled.
We reached out to Sears and XPO.
On the same day, Sears said it would investigate. A week later we heard from the XPO rep. She had been on vacation, she said, but the company would look into it.
A few days later, Litvin said, he was contacted by an outside claims management firm that he was told was hired by Sears to manage the case.
“They are doing a good job communicating with me so things are moving along – slowly,” Litvin said.

This was one of the emails recevied by Boris Litvin by the company tasked with following up on his claim. (Boris Litvin)
The new rep said Litvin should hear from the delivery company’s insurance adjuster, but after more than three weeks, he hadn’t received a call. So while the new rep was communicative, Litvin was no closer to a resolution.
“Sears subcontracts all the delivery and installation work out and refuses to take any responsibility/liability for any of the actions although all of the contracts are signed with Sears,” Litvin said. “I never signed anything with XPO Logistics or anyone else.”
We checked in once again with Sears and XPO to see what was taking so long.
Sears didn’t respond to any of our email or voice messages.
A spokeswoman for XPO did respond, saying on Sept. 4 that she would get an update.
Perhaps that lit a fire. Litvin reported an insurance adjuster came to inspect the damage on Sept. 6 – more than three months after the flooded basement was first discovered.
“I’m now waiting to hear back from him,” Litvin said of the adjuster a week later.
On Sept. 19, finally, the homeowner got a call. He said XPO said Litvin’s claim would be settled for the amount provided in the estimate Litvin had received.
That was good news.
We went back to XPO to ask what took so long.
“This claim took longer than normal to resolve because the insurance company had to investigate preexisting damage in Mr. Litvin’s home from a flood in 2012,” a spokeswoman said. “We’re pleased the contractor on this job and his insurance company were able to resolve this case.”
So is Litvin. He confirmed he had a basement water claim from Superstorm Sandy. His insurance company paid for all the repairs, he said, and the basement was just fine until this new flood.
But boy, that was an awfully long time to wait.