AIBU to ask who's responsible if a window cleaner falls off his ladder on your property?

[todayandnottomorrow]

We have a new window cleaner starting that many people in the area seem to use. He uses ladders. I suddenly thought, what if he falls on my property and hurts himself? It got me panicked. Would I be accountable?

You need to keep your property reasonably safe and maintained. If you know you have loose roof tiles that are falling off, you can’t just ignore it and then shrug if one falls on someone's head, so you'd be legally liable for that.

But that's not the same as a tradesman falling off his own ladder because he overreached or whatever.

No, but you could make a claim against him if he landed in your garden on your prize rose bush and splattered blood all over your washing 😉

It’s something I worry about as this happened to a window cleaner at my old house.
It wasn’t a good outcome. My teenage daughter found the poor man very seriously injured on the neighbour’s patio (shared access) when she came home mid morning after an exam otherwise he might have been there til early evening.

She obvs rang 999 and did what the operator told her to (very little, just blanket & reassurance) Air ambulance attended and he was taken to specialist trauma centre.

His life was saved but he was severely impaired and his family made a claim against the neighbour’s insurance as the window cleaner used a ladder provided by them. He had fallen from the top of the ladder around 5m.

My daughter had to provide a statement to the solicitors and I know that the claim was settled in favour of the injured man. Sadly he died not long after this.

So yes, I always ask anyone working at height at my home about safety. The window cleaner uses the brushes on poles here but also does need to use a ladder for certain parts of the building.

@Frabbits 🤣

Hahahahaha you're inside my brain

YOU know that, op obviously didn't, that's why she asked .

If he has income protection insurance it will. If he only has public liability it won't

That’s a really sad story @DaughterOfEvening . It’s something I worried about at our old house (window cleaner three stories high on un-spotted ladder) and I will now be more assertive and ask about insurance and safety with new window cleaners at our new place.

From the article linked to in my earlier post:

"For countless years window cleaners clambered up their ladders to bring a shine to the nation’s glass.
However, they were never a safe option, with around ten fatal accidents and numerous injuries every year.
There weren’t many sensible alternatives unless the job was an industrial one, until new regulations in 2005 restricted the use of ladders in window cleaning, leading to rumours that they had actually been banned altogether."

😂

I’m in a terraced house too.

This thread got me thinking. I now live in a country in Europe and I've never seen domestic window cleaners here - because our windows all open inwards rather than the UK ones which open outwards, so we can easily clean the windows ourselves from the inside.

That would be so much better.

The day they came to install our solar panels there was a yellow weather warning for wind. Fortunately the roofer (just one) realised that it was not safe, and rang in to say it would have to be postponed, but I wasn't impressed that they'd left him to make that decision, and did wonder whether their insurance actually covers them when there's a weather warning.

I worry about this as a business local to us ended up seeing the owner in prison.

The tradesman fell from a height and was killed . The business owner went to prison

Youd only be liable if you were negligent. So doing something that a reasonable person wouldn't do (sneaking up behind him and shouting 'boo!') or not doing something that a reasonable person would do (eg not warning him of a massive concealed hole where he would be likely to put his ladder). And this would be picked up on your households public liability insurance anyway.

Legislation about ladders at work apply to employees so if he works for himself won't apply.

He won't automatically have insurance covering an injury to himself. Tradespeople generally have public liability insurance that covers damage to third party property or injury to third parties. The only way he would be covered for an injury to himself is if he had purchased separate accident cover.

@swimlyn I shouldn't have laughed at that.

Absolutely not , stupid idea , would never buy them . I've got enough to do in my life without adding another chore to the already long list of shit that needs to be done 😆. I love my window cleaner he brings his dog with him .

Blimey, you'd really flap if you saw our tree surgeons. They climb about with chainsaws. I have to watch, its impressive. Also they are all very handsome so when they first came I thought they were a set up and would do a song and dance routine whilst stripping off.

I have considered asking them if they have a calender available.

Legislation about ladders at work apply to employees so if he works for himself won't apply.

No, it applies to the self-employed too. I wondered about that, and looked it up.

But the cost of having your windows cleaned! It’s so expensive, I don’t know how anyone affords it. I’ve had my windows cleaned once in 25 years.

Always ask for proof of insurance before you hire anyone to do work on your property.

Insurance for what?

Income protection would cover his revenue (or fixed costs) of running the business for a year or two max, not personal injury compensation if he injured himself.

You can get personal accident cover, but that's a fixed sum per injury, eg loss of a finger: £1000, loss of a limb: £20,000 etc. It doesn't cover the personal injury compensation of the window cleaner(against himself), eg if he falls, has a serious injury and needs ongoing care and so on.

If he has half a brain he would have insurance to cover him in the case of injury and all that might entail, as well as public liability.

When I worked visiting peoples homes to work with their dogs, I had personal injury cover.

It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't prohibitively expensive and it would have been the height of stupidity to be going into peoples homes with potentially aggressive dogs, without it!