Accidental damage by neighbour

Mrs_Chip

He was working in his garden and the pot was knocked over the edge of his garden down into our yard and onto the tank.

Crazy_Jamie

The reason why I ask is because it is important as far as liability is concerned as to how exactly this happened. You mentioned in the first post that the pot is heavy, so I'm assuming it's not something that you could just brush past and knock over. In which case there must have been something more significant on his part to knock it onto your property. If you know exactly what he was doing it may be easier to form a view on liability.

lisyloo

If you take the "take him to court" option, that is the same as writing to the insurer!

The two are not equivalent.
Writing to the insurer means a commercial company makes a decision.
Going to court means that an independent judge/magistrate makes a decision.
Sometimes these decisions are different.

The OP would have to pay all the court costs up front, and would only get these back were he to win the case in court!

There are costs and risks certainly, but if the insurer declines the claim then legal action is the only option left.
This is why I like to have legal insurance when we have those threads about "should I buy this legal insurance".
If you are talking the order in which to appraoch the matter, then I would certainly write the letter first, but from what I've heard I would be expecting a decline.

No-one said going to court was free - I guess we thought that was obvious.

Mrs_Chip

The pot was an old plastic one full of solid soil and weeds - from looking at it, it would not have been very stable, and it was sitting at the edge of his path, which has no edge to it. I assume he knocked it off as he was going past it on his way up into his garden (he was in the process of building a playhouse with someone else - they may have been moving stuff, but we did not see what actually happened, just heard the huge bang of the pot hitting the tank then saw them peering over the edge!).

My view is that this could have been avoided if he had recognised the risk of a heavy unstable item being so close to an unprotected edge.

It would be interesting to know people's interpretation of where the 'accident' happened - his insurers contend it happened on our property, but my view is that the object was in, and was knocked over, whilst in his.

lisyloo

I think you need to get a formal response that lays out their defence and then come back.
I don't think the location is a compelling argument, it hinges around whether he was negligent.
Would a reasonable person have forseen this?
I have to say that I don't think any reasonable person would be expected to do a health & safety risk assesement on their own garden or test their plant pots for stability.
But - you need to get their formal response based on your version of events, not what they are telling your neighbour with his (no doubt incomplete) version of events.

Mrs_Chip

Lol Lisyloo, no, I would'nt expect that either, but in these circs, it would not have taken much to see there might be an issue. Our garden, which is away from our property, is also above another. We recently had some trees chopped and when I stacked the logs I moved the stack twice because I was concerned the heavy logs could roll over the edge and cause damage below.

The only reason I make the point re location is because this is what the neighbour contends his insurers are saying makes the difference "the accident happened on our property" - or do they mean 'too' our property - I expect there is a deal of 'lost in translation' going on.

Still waiting for him to supply his insurers details, I have a funny feeling he will be awkward about it, his attitude was distinctly more unhelpful last night.

I really don't expect to get much out of this, but equally we are the ones without heating or hot water, and likely to be so for several weeks, so I am don't really feel like just rolling over! We will also be out of pocket by about 3 grand at a time we can least afford it.

Quentin

lisyloo wrote: »

This is why I like to have legal insurance when we have those threads about "should I buy this legal insurance".

Your "legal insurance" won't pay for you to sue someone unless they feel you have a good chance of winning, and the person you are sueing can pay you!

Quentin

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

Still waiting for him to supply his insurers details, I have a funny feeling he will be awkward about it, his attitude was distinctly more unhelpful last night.

Your neighbour isn't obliged to tell you about his insurers.

If you cannot get the details, then write your letter to him, (as advised in #2), set out the negligence and ask him to either pay your damages or pass the letter on to his insurer. Then take it from there.

silvercar

Your neighbour is caught, his insurers won't accept it as a claim on his insurance so he can only wait for you to take him to court at which point his insurer is more likely to pay out under an owner indemnity clause (or whatever it is called). So your neighbour can't admit to being at fault.

His defence will be that the pot was full and heavy so less likely to be unstable.

Would it be possible to repair the tank?

lisyloo

Your "legal insurance" won't pay for you to sue someone unless they feel you have a good chance of winning, and the person you are sueing can pay you!

I totally agree.
If the case doesn't have a good chance of winning then at least you are getting the legal advice for free and taking no risk, so that's still a better posistion than being uninsured/unadvised in my view.
If the person has house insurance then they have the means to pay (I accept we don't actually know this 100%), but if they are your next door neighbour you probably know if they are employed/unemployed and whether they have assets (like a car or two).