Roof tiles into neighbours property help!

finnie500

Hi guys, I hope someone can give me some advice as I'm really panicking about this (and slightly annoyed)
My neighbour approached my husband today claiming that a roof tile from our property had narrowly missed his car. He was now parking on the street (it was in his drive) until we have the roof repaired. He then claimed that this had happened with his last car (no mention until now... just as he claimed our cat had torn down his fence after he replaced it.)
Anyway, the thing is he then threatened us with a statutory notice if we didn't get the roof repaired. It is an old roof, patched up perhaps six years ago and the odd tile since then. We had extremely high winds last night so it's certainly plausible. There are tiles missing elsewhere in the street but we are the closest.
I am not sure if we would be covered by our insurance and even then would they do a repair on only the ones that fell off or nail down any loosened ones. There was no actual damage to his car so I can't tell him to claim on his insurance or pay for any damage.
I'm really just raging I have been threatened in this way. I would appreciate any help or advice regarding this, sorry if I'm rambling!

Quentin

You will be covered by insurance for the neighbour's damage (if he had any) only if you are proven to be negligent.

No need to discuss this further with the neighbour, and pass any claims he makes for any damage on to your insurer to deal with. They will put him straight!

If you have lost tiles due to the storm, then before you contact your insurer see what a local roofer will charge to sort it, and compare his estimate with paying your excess and having a claim to disclose over the next 3/5 years.

Pitchshifter

You need to maintain your property, for:
a) your own safety
b)other peoples safety
c)it's your home, look after it!

ACG

He probably hasnt gone about it the right way but i can see his point.

Hes probably just a bit annoyed and may well calm down. See this from his perspective though, his property could be damaged or family hurt because you have not kept on top of your property.

Im just playing devils advocate here.

rs65

finnie500 wrote: »

I am not sure if we would be covered by our insurance and even then would they do a repair on only the ones that fell off or nail down any loosened ones.

Maybe an obvious question but does your roof need repaired?

If there is storm damage then insurers will pay.

If it is down to wear and tear or lack of maintenance then you will have to pay.

If it does need repaired, now that he has pointed this out, you could be deemed negligent if further tiles cause damage.

finnie500

Thanks everyone. To be honest, it is an old roof but the tiles do not randomly fall off, the winds were mental last night. I don't mind getting someone in to look at it and get a repair job but the fact that he has threatened us with a 'statutory notice' and is parked in the street where he has just as much chance of getting hit by a random tile (we are neighbours but separate dwellings if that makes sense- looking out my window I can see tiles missing from my neighbours roof) really riled me. He is a typical 'grumpy old man' and it always seems to be our roof, our cat, our BBQ, our kids etc and I just wanted to know how best to approach this matter, and I guess secretly hoping since I don't have any cash lol that the insurance may cover it!
Thanks again, I guess we will contact a roofer and get some quotes.

forgotmyname

Best action is put your roof into a state of repair where the tiles wont fall off and ignore the neighbour.

How big is your cat to have torn down a fence?

finnie500

I know , he's a jaguar.
Unfortunately my cat is quite pathetic and runs off when all the other neighbourhood cats are tearing down my neighbours fence. Perhaps I should have threatened my neighbour with a statutory notice when he came into my garden to paint anti climb paint on my side of his fence- which said daft cat rubbed up against and ingested it when he tried to clean himself? Sure would have shown him! Anyway, I'm digressing. Spoke to downstairs neighbours (shared roof) who promptly exclaimed ' what, after one tile falls off during high winds? Who does he think he is, laird of the street?'
So we will log it with the insurers, say what they say and deal with said statutory notice when it arrives. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Spikey1

It sounds to me like you have carried out maintenance repairs to your roof quite regularly. So that's 1-0 to you.....you are not neglecting the roof.


Like thousands of other people, you had tiles blown off in storm winds last night..... 2-0 to you.......you have no legal liability in this situation (the tile caused no damage anyway !).


One concern however would be if your roof is in such poor condition that it is inevitable that it will lose tiles whenever there are winds. Or if your roof is the only original roof left in the street and all others have been renewed in recent years. If that were the case your neighbour might have a justified concern/complaint.


If he's just the grumpy old git that you say he is then just give him a cheery happy greeting every day....he can't complain about that and it will be the one thing that annoys him more than anything else.

Quentin

finnie500 wrote: »

.....So we will log it with the insurers, say what they say and deal with said statutory notice when it arrives. Thanks again for everyone's help.

You don't need to "log" this now, unless you have decided to make a claim over the storm damage.

Only if your neighbour makes a claim against you at some time in the future do you need to involve your insurer.

If you log it now, then this will go on your record as a loss which you will have to disclose to future insurers and could impact on your renewal premium

forgotmyname

If you report everything your neighbour moans about you will be uninsurable.

Maybe put your cat on a diet

If my neighbour put anti climb paint on the top of the fence i would wash it off. Put it on his side by all means/ Not on the top.

I can think of several issues there to file a complaint or even a claim against them.