Neighbour taking friend to court

[Clappingforjoy]

My friend had a fire in his garden last April and it caused damage to some neighbouring gardens especially the one neighbour. My friend didn't and still doesnt know how it started so that remains a mystery and the fire brigade could only say that it started in our garden but they didnt know how.
Now several months later we have been made aware that the neighbour that suffered the most damage is taking him to court and is getting all the others on his side and got witness statements off them and gave them to his solicitor to say my friend was burning rubbish the day before he denies this and says the only thing he did was get a weed burner out from his shed st the side of the house and take it to the front garden to burn weeds then he put it back ensuring it was out.
After this he went out and on arriving home abt an hour later the fire had already started way at the bottom of the garden far from the side shed.
His son was there and had noticed the fire from his bedroom window and had already called the fire brigade.
All neighbours have since few months ago had all repairs done so I can only think they are claiming for thier excess.
What should he do friend is dismissing saying he is totally innocent and despite the fact he has a burner he hadnt used it for several weeks but claims he has smelt burning before from somebody else's garden in the past and there is no proof of anything except probably some made up statements from neighbours trying to get money.

Who in the right mind throws thier arms up in the air and says yes it was me when it wasnt without a fight

Well, nobody, obviously.

But it wasn't you. It was your friend.

Or so you say.

Your ' friend' needs to know how to tell the truth.. Because any court is going to get confused as to how your friend is being sued for a fire in your garden

Well I also didnt expect this to be so popular either because I've seen more exciting threads but hey

OP, were you hoping that the MN Jury would be up in arms against your horrid neighbours?

The same neighbours who have had damaged property as a result of a fire which did/didn't start in your garden?

By the way, court can be expensive.

My poor parents had neighbours who cut down their ( my parents') fence. My parents tried their best to resolve it amicably. Neighbours were very convinced they were on the side of justice.

It ended up in court and the neighbours had to sell their house to cover costs.

I doubt it will be that expensive for your ex (I'm guessing magistrates court) but it taught me the lesson that court is best avoided if compromise can be reached.

He needs to tell his insurers that he is being sued. They will deal with it themselves / appoint solicitors if it goes to court. You are liable for spreading fire damage if it started due to your negligence. That is quite hard to prove though normally (obviously the burners dont help his case, nor does it help if there are witnesses saying he did x y and z). If it's just damage to fences and garden sheds, it won't be hundreds of thousands, they may just pay out the money rather than go to court as it will likely be a lot less than solicitors fees.

It wont financially ruin him other than his insurance premium will go up, which if he has already claimed for damage to his own property, will be the case anyway

I think a call to his insurance is a must because at this point I dont know if they paid off these people's insurance or not friend just left it in thier hands

He clearly caused it. Tbh if I was burning stuff in a bin I wouldn't be putting it straight into a shed. Have you seen how long they take to cool down. Moving them from one garden to another would be tricky at best and he likely missed some embers. Had he left it where it was it wouldn't have happened.

Freak of nature though? 🤷🏽‍♀️😂😂

On a serious note, are you sure the case is only being brought against your ex and that you won't also be involved in the judgment as you lived there at the time?

He plans to wait for the inevitable solicitors letter then call his insurance

He's not financially prepared... You said he has Insurance.

I poured petrol on my neighbour’s fence last week. This morning my neighbour’s fence caught fire and they are blaming me! WTF it’s clearly an act of God, maybe the sun shone too hard. I wasn’t even at home all day so there’s no way I (I mean my friend) made anything burn.

It was put away in a brickshed

Yes he is insured

Will the insurance cover all of this though
What if he still denies any wrongdoing

I think maybe you don't understand (and does he?) that a fire starting by accident and him in no way planning for a fire to break out in his garden does not stop him being liable. The fire started on his property, it was not a freak of nature, and he is responsible for what happens on his property. This should be a job for the insurance companies to sort out. Has he not contacted them? That should have been the very first thing he did after it happened.

He plans to wait for the inevitable solicitors letter then call his insurance

Frankly that's stupid

So in your world, it doesn't matter where a fire starts, as long as nobody knows the cause, there's no liability?

Thankfully, the law doesn't see it like that.

How does he know it's going to court if he hasn't received any formal notification?

If the neighbours told him so, he needs to stop any communication that isn't via a solicitor to protect himself.

It was a hot day maybe the sun was beaming onto a solar panel or the shed glass would this make him responsible

*Maybe embers came from another neighbours fire
None of us smoked at the time yet a fag end was found by ex in the rubble

Neighbour opposite is always out fagging it although usually near thier house so I dont know what to think

Right OP, you are reaching higher than S Club 7 here with these. It only takes a bit of common sense to know how this will go - there was a weed burner involved, directly or indirectly. Your mate needs to think of alternatives to weed killing that doesn't involve fire tbh, and he needs to suck this one up.

Ffs if he's had further correspondence it needs to go to his insurance company. He needs to talk to his insurance company.

Hes not going to be financially ruined because he has insurance. That is the point of insurance.

The insurance company is the one to be asking likely outcomes, because they deal with this kind of thing day in day out.

Did i mention he should talk to his insurance?

Who the fuck burns stuff in their front garden when they have a back garden to use, let alone bring that burner through from the back?

Oh no, he mustn't wait to call the insurance! He should have done it the minute the fire was put out! They might not be prepared to take the case now (I know mine wouldn't). Certainly if he hasn't called them before, he should do it right now.

His one neighbour keeps him informed about what's been said

Has your "friend" got insurance? If so, he has nothing to worry about and should just settle the neighbour's claim. (If he hasn't, he's an idiot).

When you say "bin burner", do you mean a proper garden incinerator (like this www.amazon.co.uk/90-LITRE-GALVANIZED-INCINERATOR-DUSTBIN/dp/B075SGZMGF/ref=asc_df_B075SGZMGF/?hvlocphy&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&hvnetw=o&hvadid&hvpone&hvlocint&hvpos&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt=e&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-4584001420915815&hvrand

or had he just chucked a load of stuff in a dustbin and set fire to it? If the latter, he was reckless. And burning "rubbish" can mean a multitude of things. If he was burning dry clippings and prunings in a proper incinerator, that's fine, if he was burning household rubbish in a dustbin, he's a fool. We burn garden stuff, in an incinerator, and it burns away relatively cleanly and we don't get burning embers blowing all over the place.

Imo the chances of a fire spontaneously starting in neighbours' gardens on the same day as your friend was burning rubbish are slim to non-existent.

He needs to just let the insurers' sort it.