Next doors property has damaged our property. Next door wont pay for damage. Who is being unreasonable?

[LunchLadyWannabe]

On thursday next when it was very windy, dh van alarm went off. It is on the drive. Dh goes out to the van and it has a tile on the bonnet, and a smashed window screen. There is also a tile on the garden of next doors house.

Two tiles has fallen off next doors roof.

Dh went next door and informed the lady (elderly lady) who was very apologetic and said she would contact her landlady ( a family friend of hers) straightaway.

Dh left his details with the lady next door.

Landlady rang about half hour later and said to dh that she would contact her insurance first thing in the morning.

Next morning, a roofer arrived and confirmed that the tiles were from next door and had come off due to poor maintenance of the roof.

Landlady contacts dh to tell him that her insurance wont pay out as "its an act of god" and basically said its just unfortunate.

The window screen has been replaced at a cost of £250. We have had to pay for this.

Dh contacts the roofer to ask him to put in writing what he told dh so dh could take it further. The roofer refused and said he didnt want to get involved, and told dh that he had been paid "as a foreigner" for the job and basically hadnt been paid enough to deal with this.

The landlady next door has asked dh not to contact her further regarding this. She doesnt care that we are out of pocket, its just one of those things!

Are we being unreasonable to expect the landlady to pay for the damage or at least pay half?

I feel really angry about this.

well it is up to you but either you pay or you go through insurance , do you know who the house is insured with ?

Given the weather the country had I think you'd be hard pushed for anyone to think it wasn't due to that

you are being unreasonable

it was a massive storm

thats what insurance is for.

1. Her name and address will be on the Land Registry.

1. Issue a claim in the small claims Court. Its a legal nuisance. Google property law company (plc should do the trick) and put in nuisance for examples exactly like this. Often it's things like trees.

Whilst it might be an act of God that it was windy, it's her duty (presumably, unless its your neighbour as tenant....the landlord would need to show the lease) to keep the tiles in repair.

Alternatively, if your insurance will cover it....and your premiums won't be affected, save yourself the hassle and sort it yourself.

People lost their whole roofs during that weather, I think you'd be hard pushed to prove it was through lack of maintenance

Yes, that's what the landlady's insurance is for, mercibucket!

I don't believe wind is classed as an act of god, we have had our roof repaired because the wind blew tiles off it, luckily enough nothing else was damaged, I think ours was classed as storm damage?

Get a copy of the title registers from the Land Registry for the neighbouring house. That will have her formal "address for service" on it.

Then issue proceedings through the small claims court - you do it online, it costs around £30-£40, which you get back if you win.

If you win & she doesn't pay, enforce the judgement. Bailiffs can be expensive, but quick recovery. A charging order can be registered against her house (any house she owns) and she won't be able to sell or re-mortgage without repaying you. That could be a long way off, but you'll get your money back.

OP hasn't said where she lives. I'm near Durham and whilst it was quite windy on Thursday night, no one was at risk of losing their roof and only poorly maintained tiles would have been blown off.

I live in Lancashire

If the storm in your area was severe then the neighbour wouldn't be deemed liable unless her roof was in a shocking state of repair. You would only be able to claim either via her insurance or small claims court if you can prove she was negligent in the maintenance of her property. You'd have to pay out a lot for reports and no guarantee you'd win.

Get the small claims court to send you the papers, send them to her and say that unless she pays within 14 days, you will fill them with the court at which point if she is found liable (hopefully you'll have pics, quotes, witness statement to back you up) she'll then have to pay up plus your costs.

I've 'threatened small claims court by sending the papers and threatening to file and it's not needed to go to court. You only get costs when the claim is filed, not by requesting papers.

act of god or not its not a fortune and the landlady should pay they would have come off sooner or later so?

the roofer working without declaring is classic you can contact the landlady tell her you have a verbal statement from the builder stating he is a cash in hand worker and if she doesn't pay you can take it to court and they will both get into trouble really if she isn't paying on the books his work is not guaranteed therefore considered substandard therefore she is responsible doesn't matter if he put it in writing or not she hired someone to do the work you have a verbal statement from him which could get him into trouble why wont the landlady pay? its really not a huge amount of money i would have paid it

The question of whether she is insured is irrelevant to whether or not she is liable for the damage. From what you have posted, it sounds to me like she is. However if she won't pay up voluntarily, you would need to issue a small claim to recover the money. Keep any relevant docs and write down now as close as word for word as you can remember what the roofer told you and date it so you have a contemporaneous note.

Land lady's buildings insurance policy will include public liability cover for damage caused to a third party by their property. However the cover may have been invalidated by their failure to maintain the property adequately so the insurance company are refusing to cover her claim. She is still legally liable for the damage to your property and you can claim against her personally. Your insurance company should do this. They can bring a claim and if they recover losses in full then you will be paid back your excess and will have no claim recorded on your record.

I think it is very shabby of the landlady not to just pay up without all this argument. It is only £250 ffs!

stick this in legal then you wont get so much nonsense.

Windscreen claims don't affect your premium. Neither do you have to pay your vehicle excess.

Did you arrange the windscreen replacement through your insurance?

Our insurance paid for storm damage only because the wind speed was recorded as 90+mph. If the winds had been less than that it wouldn't have been covered. Something to do with maintaining the property to a reasonable standard.

YANBU. If my roof had done this to a neighbour's windscreen, I'd feel personal responsibility and a moral obligation to pay up.

I think LL's insurers are trying it on by saying they aren't responsible - it wouldn't surprise me if call centre staff had been told to try to dissuade claimants in the first instance. However, as the LL is being an arse, she's unlikely to persist with this and argue her/your case with them.

Setting things in motion for Small Claims would give her a kick up the backside.

Why didn't you go through your car insurance for windscreen? You'd only pay the excess and most insurance companies don't increase your premiums for a windscreen.

I think the landlady should pay you, it's not a huge sum. Even if she doesn't have it all in one go she should offer you it in instalments.

Thanks for all responses,

Personally i would of paid the money if i was the landlady. Its her attitude that gets my back up. Shes very much on her high horse when dh has spoken to her, and i think thats what makes me mad. If you have made someone else out of pocket, then in my mind you have no right to be on your high horse.

If the landlady was very apologetic, and had said that she was skint and couldnt pay, but she felt awful about the situation, but she really didnt have any money, then i think i wouldnt feel so angry, and would be feeling more relaxed about it

I've had similar experiences to these from both sides (ie my property causing damage to someone else's, and someone else's property causing damage to mine). In both cases I've had unequivocal assurance from all insurance companies involved that unless negligence can be proved then it is up to the person who has sustained the damage to claim on their own insurance.

In a storm you will not be able to claim negligence. In fact, from what I remember, the only way you would be able to claim negligence is if you had had some previous problem caused by her roof, and had put in writing to her that she needed to do something about, which she ignored.

The fact that her builder was cash in hand is neither here nor there. She has to use properly registered electricians and plumbers, but I'm fairly sure that's as far as the law goes.

You could try in Small Claims. It would cost you about £100 and I'd bet a lot of money that you'd lose.

Dh excess is £250.

We didnt go through our insurance.

i wouldnt even have asked or expected her to pay. storm damage is gutting but its just life. you get insurance for this kind of stuff.