Storm Damage from property to neighbours

Photogaz

I'm looking for some advice.

Flying debris fro my dust bins has caused damage to my neighbour's car (scrathes to the paint work).

My building/contents insurer (RCA/AXA) has refused to pay and has said the neighbour will have to recover cost from his car insurance company.

My neighbour insists that it was my dustbin which caused the damage,so, I will have to pay .

They have no proof it was my dustbin and I'm a little dubious.

Does that mean any damage cause by my building (falling television aerial, disc or any other object ) is not covered by the owner's buiding?

Many thanks in advance.

Quentin

Your insurers are correct.

To make them pay up for the damage the neighbour would have to prove the damage has been caused by your negligence.

Pass on any correspondence you get off the neighbour or his insurers to your own insurer unanswered and they will deal with them.

To answer your question you/your insurers are not responsible for accidental damage your property may cause to his property unless your negligence is proven. Which is why we have insurance.

fimonkey

Fascinating! Is that really true? So if my garage roof blew off due to storms, and landed on a neighbors car parked on their private drive and I was insured for storm damage under my buildings cover, it would not cover their car??!! ---
And what if their car had no insurance?
Why DO we have insurance if this is the case? How can you prove negligence in a storm?

Spikey1

Well FiMonkey....your household buildings policy covers for the damage caused to your building by an insured peril. So your garge roof would be paid for if it blew off in a storm.


It will also cover you for your liabilities....so when something happens which has been caused by your negligent actions (or lack of actions) you will be covered for damage caused to third parties. If a storm blew your garage roof off you are just as much an unfortunate victim as the guy whose car was hit. You have done nothing wrong so you don't have any liability for the damage to his car. He must claim from his own motor insurance for his car.....if he has no cover then that still does not make the incident your fault. He would be faced with paying for the repairs to his car himself.

fimonkey

Blimey Spikey -that seems wrong somehow.

Whats an insured peril?

My policy would cover a new garage roof. Would it cover damage to my own car? What about my 'public liability' which is in my insurance? It seems to cover other people for my misdemeanours - would that not include storm damage from my property?
Its rubbish that someone else would have to pay for a problem created by me ultimately.

rs65

fimonkey wrote: »

Its rubbish that someone else would have to pay for a problem created by me ultimately.

Storm damage wasn't created by you.

Your home policy wouldn't cover damage to your own car.

Spikey1

Lets just say that you had no buildings insurance.


The garage roof blows off in a storm with winds of over 80mph. The roof flies over the road and damages the car. There are people in the car, one is killed the other is paralysed and cannot work again....he was a top surgeon earning around £500k per year.


You did nothing wrong yourself...you did not arrange for the storm to occur. How would you feel if you were personally liable for £millions worth of damage/compensation payments in a situation which you had no control or influence over ?


Insurance policies are written around UK case law. Thankfully, innocent people are not held liable for incidents such as this.

Aretnap

fimonkey wrote: »

And what if their car had no insurance?

Then it's tough luck. They can't demand that someone else pay for every random bit of misfortune which might befall them.

Why DO we have insurance if this is the case?

To protect your own property. And to protect yourself from losing large amounts of money should you cause harm to someone. Not to protect your neighbours from bad luck which is only loosely related to you.

How can you prove negligence in a storm?

With difficulty. Things blow around in storms and sometimes cause damage. It's a fact of life and there's only a limited amount you can do to prevent it. So if your neighbour wants his property to be protected from storm damage he needs to insure against it himself.

InsideInsurance

fimonkey wrote: »

My policy would cover a new garage roof. Would it cover damage to my own car? What about my 'public liability' which is in my insurance? It seems to cover other people for my misdemeanours - would that not include storm damage from my property?

Its rubbish that someone else would have to pay for a problem created by me ultimately.

How was the problem created by you?

If your roof blew off and damaged your car and your neighbours car and you all had comprehensive insurance.

You can claim off your home insurance for your roof as it will be covered for Storm damage. You claim off your car insurance for the damage to your car, you cannot claim off your home insurance for the damage to the car because your Home cover doesnt include your own cars and you cannot sue yourself to have protection under the public liability section.

The neighbours car is where things are more complex. They can sue you and your home insurance will respond however to be successful they must prove you were negligent - which is to do something a reasonable person wouldnt do or to fail to do something a reasonable person would do. Now, you cannot be reasonably held responsible for causing the storm and so the only way they can argue negligent would be about the condition of the structure itself. IE it was rotten to hell, you reasonably would have known that and had an opportunity to fix it.

Obviously this is difficult to do and is rarely successful. The majority of the time properties are in reasonable states of repair and its just the case that a 100mph wind is capable of removing a reasonably maintained roof.

Your neighbour of cause could claim off of their own insurance