Insurance claim with neighbour

mouldyloaf

In last weeks storm, part of our neighbours conservatory was blown off and hit our house causing some minor damage to the window frame & sill. They said that their insurance company could sort everthing out with ours, but guess what ? Just realised today that we have no buildings insurance since we changed mortgage company & overlooked this! Does it matter, as the claim would be made on their policy, as their property damaged ours?

I'm about as good with insurance as a member of the BB house! Any suggestions?
Thanks

tom188

Get buildings insurance asap. Surely it is a condition of your mortgage that you have it. Just imagine what would happen if your house burned down. Left with no house and a mortgage company after their money.

You are claiming against them.

mouldyloaf

Cheers,

That was the first thing I did upon narrowly avoiding a divorce with my husband after sharing the good news with him!!

mattymoo

To claim against your neighbour though you have to prove that they were negligent. With the storms last week I suspect you will be hard pushed to do that.

If the conservatory was newish (under 10 yrs old) and in good condition you don't really have a chance. If it was a ramshackle old thing that would have fallen down anyway (without the help of the storms) you may stand a chance.

Astaroth

I am sure that their insurer will deny liability on behalf of their client as per mattymoo's comments. It is up to you to prove it is their fault and not the fault of the storm which is an "act of god"

courtjester

With reports of 80-90mph winds and gusts and evidence everywhere of (well maintained) buildings sustaining major damage and collapse due to this extreme storm, you are almost certainly on a hiding to nothing suggesting that your neighbour is in any way responsible for this 'accident'.

The cause of the damage was storm - your neighbour is covered for the damage to his property under his policy. You (would be) covered for damage to your property under your own policy.

Your neighbours policy will only cover damage to your property under a "legal liability" section if that is due to negligence on your neighbours part. I would suggest that even if you could show that the conservatory was ramshackle, you would have little or no chance of proving a legal claim against your neighbour in the circumstances of the weather that prevailed.