Council or contractor liability for damage to my garden wall?

[Friday47]

My house backs onto a council-owned car park. The council has contractors working there, and they have equipment stored on site.

I’ll keep this brief, but while they were working through the night, it appears that a piece of construction equipment went through the council fence and knocked over my brick garden wall, causing damage.

I have CCTV which clearly establishes the timing of the incident, but not the equipment going into the wall. There are also marks on the ground/floor which appear consistent with construction equipment having been moved across the area.

I have contacted the council, but they are saying that the damage is the contractor’s responsibility. However, the contractors have now ignored my communications, leaving me with no clear route to resolve the matter.

Does anyone have any advice on where I stand or what steps I should take?

It’s not so much the cost of repairing the wall that concerns me. What concerns me is the reckless behaviour of what looks like the contractors- if we were out in the garden late it would have been very serious and, importantly, the council’s apparent lack of accountability in dealing with the issue.

thank you

@FlerpOfDoom ? As we have been saying, there are risks with this - a long winded claim! It’s the council as they contracted out THEIR work. It’s for the council to sort it out.

Given that the contractors damaged your wall then attempted to cover the matter up might there be a criminal damage issue in which case do involve The Police

It’s not really criminal though is it? The police? They don’t care about women being assaulted so I doubt they care about this! Yes it’s underhand but it’s been discovered. When my brick gatepost was hit by a vehicle, I noticed. The op might have to be honest about the state of the wall in the first place. If it was on its last legs, it’s not going to take much to shove it over. If it was nearly new and perfect, that’s different.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to post.
i have enough advice to progress now.
much appreciated

I doubt it will be the council’s liability insurance, the contractor will have needed their own for the works carried out to gain the contract. You need to complain to the contractor and follow their complaints process.

If I employed a contractor who knocked down my neighbours wall while doing work I had commission, my neighbour could complain to the contractor or he would also be entitled to complain to me and leave it to me seek restitution from the contractor. Whether I had liability insurance to cover my loss is irrelevant to my neighbours claim.

But when a contractor works for a local authority they need insurances in place and liability is transferred, a site won’t have 2 pay out options. In my experience anyway. A council will make sure the contractors are liable while they have possession of the site.

That means the council can claim from the contractors, not that other people cannot claim from the council first,

Why do people keep raising insurance as if it has any relevance to whether someone should pay out? Insurance just means the insurer pays instead of you if you a liable. If the council are not insured for something they are liable for then it just means the money has to come from their own budget instead.

@Chrysanthemumsinpots Yes. That’s exactly how it works. Council via someone senior or a councillor is what the op needs to do.

Not in my experience, a council will say the contractor is liable as that will have been in the tender when the contract was awarded, what level of cover the contractor would need etc

@Rollerballskate In my experience it’s been the council and they recover costs from the contractor.