Suing council for tree root damage

k_d_ch

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to gather opinions of those who might have experience in such matters.
The roots of the tree in front of our house (into which we moved in Feb 2011) have lifted part of the wall which is about 2.5 meters away from the house at the front. Below is the timeline of the matter. Any thoughts on whether it might make sense to proceed with this? Many thanks!

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Tree roots issue timeline:

10 May 2010 (before we move into the house): (Regular) tree inspection by Council (copy of inspection report provided by Council under FOI).

10 November 2010: House survey by a surveyor prior to purchase. The roots are visible on some of the photos, in particular one large entering of the gutter.

25 February 2011: We move into the house.

May 2012: My spouse calls Council explaining the problem and requesting Liability Claim forms. These were received by us but mislaid.

18 September 2012: My spouse calls Council, explaining the problem again, and requesting Liability Claim form.

October 2012: An inspector from Council visits, takes pictures. (Unofficial, we are at home by chance.) There are no documents supplied on this yet: the Council say they don't have a record of the visit.

16 July 2013: Latest (regular) tree inspection by Council. No problems found (!), according to their report, which I requested under FOI and now have.

8 October 2013: Workers from Council come, lift the payment, cut off one tree root (the one showing from the gutter), put new pavement covering some remaining roots, which are still there and growing, presumably.

10 June 2014: Receipt of our liability claim to Council. The liability claim included photos from
Nov 2010 (our surveyor), Oct 2013 (on the day the pavement was open to sever the biggest root), quotes for work, ranging from £900 to £6000.

7 October 2014: Letter from Council's solicitor, refusing the claim and suggesting that no issues were noted on the previous inspection date, 16 July 2013. (In spite of them coming to sever the roots in Oct 2013.) Furthermore, they claim that have not received any complaints/reports regarding the tree in question. (In spite of our calls to the Council and the visit of the inspector.)

20 November 2014: Visit from our surveyor and letter from him, confirming the damage to the wall has been caused by the tree roots.

16 March 2015: I write letter before action to the Council, explaining my case, copy to their solicitors.

12 May 2015: Council's solicitors respond (after requesting more time on 14 April 2015), saying that Council attended the roots, and no issues were noted in July 2013. (So, they imply that the roots were severed before July 2013, which is untrue, see above.)

11 June: I make a small claims court claim online, for an amount on one of the quotes I have for the work that needs to be done, £2650.

19 June: I receive a letter from a newly appointed solicitor, asking for an extension until 11 August 2015.

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themull1

Do you have to agree with the extension?

Lisbon

Get some free advice from the local CAB.

k_d_ch

Do you have to agree with the extension?

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There isn't any indication that I have to. At the moment I lean towards saying no, so they only have the 28 days given to them by law. I have acted reasonably by letting the previous solicitor of the Council have 2 months to respond to my letter before action. They took this time to look into the matters in detail, without being rushed. Their response was negative still, even though I said I would be taking them to court, so I don't see why I should be forward coming now.

tanith

Do you not have your own insurers involved? When this happened to my brother his own insurers dealt with it and did most of the dealing with the council. His house was damaged and had to be underpinned as did both his neighbours.

daveyjp

Keep the pressure on. Councils will try and kick the can down the road and come August whoever is dealing or whoever they have to get instructions from will be on leave.

Before you know it it will be Christmas.

Middlestitch

So you received the forms in May 2012 and lost them, but didn't ask for new ones until the middle of September 2012; and then only submitted them in June 2014, nearly two years later...? Your surveyor claims the roots caused damage and wrote to you in November 2014 to say so, but you only sent this to the Council in March 2015? Not really surprising the Council are giving it such a low priority - and such a lack of urgency on your part won't help your case. Do go and talk to the CAB instead of trying the DIY approach - time is passing and that never helps matters.

k_d_ch

Middlestitch wrote: »

So you received the forms in May 2012 and lost them, but didn't ask for new ones until the middle of September 2012; and then only submitted them in June 2014, nearly two years later...? Your surveyor claims the roots caused damage and wrote to you in November 2014 to say so, but you only sent this to the Council in March 2015? Not really surprising the Council are giving it such a low priority - and such a lack of urgency on your part won't help your case. Do go and talk to the CAB instead of trying the DIY approach - time is passing and that never helps matters.

Thank you for your honest advice: I do accept being slow initially. I guess my hope was that the Council will do the job themselves properly: cutting tree roots so as to prevent further damage etc. (which they didn't in the end), as their responsibility for it seemed obvious. In addition, their attitude during this case as it unfolded (saying the 2010 and 2013 inspections registered no problem) is what is the main basis of my claim of negligence on their part.
Thank you for pointing in the direction of CAB, as someone else also did earlier: I will certainly do this, although it remains to be seen how far their free advice extends...
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k_d_ch

tanith wrote: »

Do you not have your own insurers involved? When this happened to my brother his own insurers dealt with it and did most of the dealing with the council. His house was damaged and had to be underpinned as did both his neighbours.

This is tricky as the insurer will only handle cases that started while I was insured with them, including legal advice. Either I don't know something about how it may work, or your brother has been with the same insurer for a substantial period of time...

tanith

k_d_ch wrote: »

This is tricky as the insurer will only handle cases that started while I was insured with them, including legal advice. Either I don't know something about how it may work, or your brother has been with the same insurer for a substantial period of time...

Well why can't you go back to the company that you were insured with at that time? I did read that insurance companies can in certain circumstances 'share' a claim..

take a look here... scroll down to 'problems caused by change of insurer'.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/building-subsidence.htm

LadyDee

Didn't the surveyor that you had in 2010 warn you of the dangers of the tree roots? If they were obvious, as evidenced by photographs surely he would have pointed out potential problems.

I worked for a surveyor many years ago and he was always very cautious about tree roots, and in fact would do his best to dissuade clients from purchasing properties with such potential for trouble.