Property damage - council wont accept liability

[Secretsout]

Can any legal experts help me? It's quite a long story but I will try to keep it brief, it's been going on about 4 years. Very large tree on the pavement outside our house and our wall is seriously cracked, pavement also badly cracked with very big tree roots protruding. The visible tree roots aligned with the cracks. Neighbouring properties with no trees in front are all fine. Council come out and dig up the pavement 2 years ago telling us that the tree roots have damaged the street light cabling on the other side of the road. I write to he council claiming their tree is damaging my wall. Everyone who has seen the wall agrees that the tree roots have caused this. Council refer it to their insurers who instruct an engineer who does a visual inspection and says the tree is not a problem. Insurers say I need to instruct my own engineer and must provide an excavation of the site to disprove their surveyor. I instruct a surveyor (cost £500), who on visual inspection agrees with us that the tree is a problem. Excavation quotes are starting at £1500 (which I don't have and would need to save for). I then contact my local City and County councillors who are on my side and supportive. They advise me not to spend any more money and not have the excavation work done at this stage. County councillor makes internal enquiries and discovers the tree has been condemned and dangerous and needs removing (1 tree fell down in a storm causing damage and therefore all other trees were surveyed and the one by ours was also a problem). Council come out and remove tree two weeks ago and Tarmac the entire pavement. I have photos of the tree and wall and pavement damage and photos of when they came to dig up the pavement which show how widespread the roots are. On advice from my councillor I contact head of legal at the council to ask them to reconsider my claim. He has referred me back to their insurer and will not get involved. So where the heck do I go from here. There's now no tree as they've removed it so how can I do an excavation (not that I ever had the money to do this) and prove we were right. Clearly the tree was a problem. Surely we were not unreasonable to believe the tree had damaged our wall? All we want is for our wall to be repaired. Any advice?

Daily mail- evening standard? Local paper? They would love this story !

I guess that's an option uni but the damn tree has gone now so all you can see is a lovely newly tarmacced pavement and a cracked wall!

Small claims? Have you looked at your own home insurance? You may have legal cover through them. They may also claim direct from the council for you. Either way, I would insist in dealing with the council not their insurers.

Thanks bilbury. The Head of legal at the council has said that the matter lies with their insurer for them to resolve and the council will not get involved.

As this has been going on so long my insurer has changed over time and when I spoke to them last year I think they stated that garden walls were not covered or something along those lines. They passed me to the legal cover people who said as the claim predated their policy they would not cover/investigate either! B*.

Don't know how to deal through small claims as the council insurer has insisted that I prove the tree has caused damage through excavation work....I didn't have £2000 to do this at the time and cant do this now as the tree has been chopped down, removed and nicely tarmacced over. Would a small claims judge just find 50/50 as no excavation proof can be given and my surveyor says the tree is the problem and their surveyor says tree not a problem? Or would they throw it out because I didn't do what was asked?

I have emailed head of legal today to ask him to put me in contact with the dept at the council who investigated the tree and condemned it as dangerous. I have asked to see their report findings. I also threatened that I should have gone to the press and that this is still an option as even though the tree has gone, I have plenty of damaging photos. I don't want to do this though as I'm not that type of person.

ah fair point. Sad face photo won't look so good without the tree. Nevertheless worth raising with local paper in case they are interested...

You should be able to get a copy of the tree report through a freedom of information request. Small claims is designed so you don't need a solicitor and should be cheap to access (can't remember the fees but not much) so you don't have much to lose going down that route. The 'other side' is the council, not the insurers though the insurers may represent them as they will be the ones who pay out but it is the council who will be liable.