Car damaged by falling Chimney - Not covered?

fivepound

I have home insurance though Asda with Equity RedStar. On Sunday afternoon we heard a large bang only to find that part of the chimney had broken off, smashed some roof tiles and damaged my car which was parked on my drive next to the house. After finding out there was no out of hours no. for RedStar (what happens in an emergency then?) I called them this morning and was told that the damage to my car from the falling bricks was not covered by my insurance. Does anyone know if this is normal and standard on buildings insurance?

Alias_Omega

Should be covered by the car insurance.

Quentin

fivepound wrote: »

Does anyone know if this is normal and standard on buildings insurance?

Yes it's normal.

dacouch

Your building insurance covers damage to the building for specified things, it also includes property owners liability which covers damage to OTHER people or OTHER peoples property that you are legally liable for. The property owners liability cover does not cover damage to your own property.

As the previous poster noted you should claim under your vehicle insurance for it if you have comprehensive cover

vikingaero

Are you only insured for Third Party Fire and Theft? If so you aren't covered. You will be covered if you are fully comp.

fivepound

Hi thx for quick replies, the car does not belong to me as its a company car. I dont think my company would be happy to cover it!

Quentin

It will be covered by their comprehensive motor policy.

cogito

Why would your employers not want to cover it? It's not as if you had an accident for which you were to blame (other than that a bit better maintenance on the property might have prevented it).

lisyloo

After finding out there was no out of hours no. for RedStar (what happens in an emergency then?)

If you have emergency cover then you should definitely have been given a number.
My suspicion however is that you haven't paid for the emergency "option" and you are assuming you have cover for something for which you are not actually covered.

What is the cause of the chimney breaking?
Was it particularly bad weather?
Was it poor maintenance on the scale of negligence?

If you were not negligent and it was just an accident then your employer has to pay for their own car. I appreciate this is a tricky situation for you, but if it wasn't your fault then they have to accept that.
If it was your fault on a scale of negligence then your employer can make a claim against you and your home insurance will cover third parties against your negligence.

It's a bit like someone tripping up in your house.
They would have to claim you were negligent to win a claim.

dacouch

As the car does not belong to you there is a possibility of a claim against the Property Owners Liability Section of the Building Insurance. Your employer would have to establish that you are legal liable eg the damage could reasonably been avoided.

As previous posters have mentioned it would probably be best for you to let your employers fleet insurance deal with the claim

fivepound

Ok, thx for the really honest answers. My companys dealing with it now. The damage was caused during a storm when a section of concrete (looks like a patio slab with the chimney pot in the middle) at the top of the chimney broke away and bounced off the roof onto the car. I just heard from my insurance who say that they are happy to fix the tiles but will not pay for the concrete slab to be replaced? which I find strange as this broke off in the storm? Again your comments would be welcome.

One comment though is that its pretty harsh to say poor maintanance was to blame when the offending item is at the top of a tall chimney and showed no sign of fatigue from ground level. It's not as if I could X Ray it and how many people pay £300 to erect a scaffording tower to check chimneys that look fine just in case?