To expect compensation for damage? (neigbours)

[WeeLasssie]

Our next-door neighbour’s big tree fell in our front garden in one of the recent storms and caused a lot of damage. They said they were insured and promised to sort everything out. They cleared up the mess and replaced our fence, but we are still out of pocket because of the damage to a landscaped sitting out area planted with shrubs and small trees with a pergolla. Also a car port beside the house was destroyed, lucky it was empty at the time. We’ve sent them an estimate for replacing the damage, including the cost of a new car port and all the plants, it does come to quite a lot but now they saying its too much and we’ve got to claim on our insurance. We think the tree was disseased and that’s why it fell over, but they say it’s not their fault as it was protected and they weren’t allowed to chop it down. This cant be right???
Yes=we are BU No=they are

Claim it on your insurance. If they decide it was their fault they will claim it off your neighbour's insurance.

I think unfortunately you have to claim on your own insurance.

I’m sorry to say it’s storm damage and is unlikely to be covered by their insurance. Sounds like they were willing to pay something out of goodwill, but you asked for too much.

You’ll probably be able to claim for the carport from your own insurers. Not sure whether plants are covered - you’ll need to check.

I thought you claimed through your insurance first who then forces another company to pay for it, if someone else was to blame?

Having a tree doesn’t make you immediately liable for any damage it does, that’s not how it works.

Yeah you'll need to speak to your own insurers....trees falling down/fences coming down during storms etc aren't usually covered. Our fence came down in Arwen and we just had to pay to replace

this is exactly what insurance is for. you talk to your insurance company & they sort the damage. they will reclaim from the neighbours insurance company if possible, but that is for them to work out. your neighbour shouldn't be transferring cash to you.

You need to speak to your insurers.

If there is no evidence of regular care and advice such as tree inspections from a qualified person they are likely to be found negligent. This is why we have our trees inspected annually, ivy cut off and dying branches removed. You cannot have the benefit of trees without the responsibility. "Act of God" won't work.

An important point here is that if there is no evidence of regular care and inspection, their insurers may fail to pay up. They would be responsible for your losses and if the tree had killed the breadwinner they could potentially lose everything.

You should pursue them and advise that you will be seeking to recover legal costs.

YABU because you need to speak to your insurers asap.

Contact your insurance company. People pay thousands to insure their homes and then seem reluctant to ever make a claim. It really doesn't push your premiums up much.

If a tree is liable to failure, because of fungal pathogen or structural weakness then legal protection would be lifted to allow appropriate management. Legal protection doesn't absolve a duty of care. If you think it failed because of disease you should have refused to let them onto your land to clean up while you collected evidence from relevant expert. If the tree is gone there may be something to learn from the stump but you'd be stretched to prove it was the cause of failure without the remainder of the tree to assess. Insurance is your best bet at this stage.

You claim on your own insurance, then your insurer pursues a subrogated recovery from the neighbours insurer if they think there are reasonable prospects of success.
There probably aren't unless you can show they have been negligent in some way - had it been creaking and cracking for a time before? Was it clearly diseased/rotten? Etc.

YABU. Most people don't have "quite a lot" of money sitting spare with the cost of living right now, you need to try and claim the money from insurance.

@NearlyHeadlessNick

You claim on your own insurance, then your insurer pursues a subrogated recovery from the neighbours insurer if they think there are reasonable prospects of success. There probably aren't unless you can show they have been negligent in some way - had it been creaking and cracking for a time before? Was it clearly diseased/rotten? Etc.

The tree was disseased because leaves were all whithered last year but they said a tree surgeon told them it couldn't be chopped down because it was protected. The tree surgeon said it was safe but the council was going to look at it. We dont know if its true or not.

Pretty sure you can find out if a tree has a protection order on it to see if they were lying. Ask your council.

Contact your local authority to check if there was a TPO on it. They keep a register of them.

Legally you need to claim in your own insurance.

I'm pretty sure TPO's can be viewed on line
Legally yes - your insurance. They may pursue their insurers. It's not up to you to do detective work either.

If they consulted a tree surgeon last year and they followed the advice he gave, then its going to be hard to prove that they were negligent.

In any case, the first step is for you to make a claim on your insurance.

It is unlikely that your neighbours are personally liable for storm damage, unless you have evidence (not suspicion) of negligence.

Large branches from our neighbours tree fell into our garden. When we asked them to sort out they said they would physically help us but they were not liable to do it and wouldn’t! be paying someone to do it (it needed chopping into bits). I was very annoyed we had to pay for it to be cut up - but I checked with tree body and they said not only were we liable but we had to give the chopped up wood back to our neighbours as they legally owned it!!

You need to make a claim through your own insurance. You are asking too much of your neighbours and pushing your luck.

If your insurance are willing to cover the fairly large costs you are quoting then happy days. But they may not due to it being a storm or an act of god as they sometimes say. That also doesn’t mean your neighbours have to pay though. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have wanted the tree to fall or create any damage and to ask them to pay out of their on pocket isn’t right.

This is all something for your insurers to sort out. It's up to them to consider liability and to claim back against your neighbours' insurance if they think there is a case. But you have to do it through your insurers in the first place.

Many years ago we had a bad leak on a pipe in our shop, flooded our shop, and the shop below us, we were in a shopping centre, and the water ended up in cellar of the downstairs shop, ruining all their stock. We were told by our insurance company not to admit blame and they would sort out the claim with the other shop's insurance company when they claimed. But like a car crash situation. Claim on your insurance, let them sort it out, and don't fall out with your neighbour. You have to keep on living next to them.

Yep, this is exactly what insurance is for. Let the insurance companies handle it.