Roof tile fell on car and dented it

Milky_Mocha

Hi there clever moneysavers

Woke up this morning to find that a roof tile had fallen on the bonnet of my car and dented it.

Since our house is still under the NHBC warranty we phoned them up about fixing the roof where the tiles had fallen (structural damage) and also asked if they'd pay to fix the car. They said we should claim under home insurance and only come to them if home insurance refuse. If we claim under home insurance it affects our no claims bonus. Has anyone experienced this? What would you advise?

MMocha

suffolkb

My dad`s car was damaged when a tile blew off his neighbour`s house. The insurance co came up with the usual act-of-God excuse and didn`t pay. The neighbour offered to pay himself. Dad went halves with him.

withabix

As there were severe weather warnings about high winds, the NHBC warranty is unlikely to pay for either the damage to the car or the replacement of the roof tiles.

It's an insurance job as far as I can see - you may only have to claim on your house insurance though, as your house damaged your car - so you might get away with one excess payment and one claim.

vsumouse

hi there,
sorry to hear about the car,
this happened to us a year last january and our car roof looked like a sumo had jumped on it, we lost 5 ridge tiles in the end and every one must of bounced off the car roof,
we spoke to our insurance (home) and they said they are experiencing a high volume of claims at thie time and told us we are able to claim upto £700 without them checking it, and just to send the receipt in once work has been done.
as for the car they said they wont pay out (even thought the car was on the drive) and we need to speak to the car insurers, so we thought that it wasnt worth loosing my no claims over this as the car was only worth about £1000. so i patched the car roof in myself and re-painted it. (not the best job but good enought)
and we sent a receipt in to the house insurance for roughly £680, now wasnt that close to the limit

ahll

This happened to me a few years ago...I was at my sisters and a slate fell off her next door neigbours roof onto my car.

The up shot was I had to claim it on my car insurance because it couldnt be proved the neigbour had not maintained his roof correctly...so another claim went on my insurance which was annoying as I had a claim because someone treid to steel my car..

Good luck

gazza975526570

You will definately have to claim for your car from your car insurance and the tile from the home insurance.
To claim from the ho ins for the car you would have to proove that the roof was not maintained to a good standard otherwise it is just an act of god.
You have to prove liability on insurance claims and there is no liability attached to anyone if it is just due to high winds

courtjester

Your house insurance won't cover damage to your car - motor vehicles will be excluded from your home policy. Your only option would be to claim on your car insurance for that repair, subject to the loss of NCB, which may not make it worthwhile.

Milky_Mocha

Thanks for the replies. I'll start by getting some estimates. I'll probably not bother even phoning up the insurers. The moment they hear of the incident my premiums might go up even if I don't claim, won't they? Something about increased risk.

Isn't it amazing how we can pay hundreds year in year out to protect against an event and then when that event happens its not worth making use of the service?

gazza975526570

Milky_Mocha wrote:

Thanks for the replies. I'll start by getting some estimates. I'll probably not bother even phoning up the insurers. The moment they hear of the incident my premiums might go up even if I don't claim, won't they? Something about increased risk.

Isn't it amazing how we can pay hundreds year in year out to protect against an event and then when that event happens its not worth making use of the service?

If its your first claim then its unlikely to impact on your premiums if there is no payout however if you have had several they may impose a claims loading.