Neighbour's roof damaged by our builders

frenchbird1

We have had our loft converted in recent weeks. The work is now finished. My neighbour died a few months back and his house has been unoccupied since. His son came to talk to us lat week and said that the builders had promised him to fix the roof of his conservatory that they dropped something onto at the start of the build. I was not aware of this. I contacted the builders and they confirmed they would replace the broken corrugated plastic sheet but they had to order it (a similar thing was broken on my side and they will replace this too). However the neighbour's son has now been in and the rain has now damaged a shelving unit that was below. The unit seems old and worthless (made of MDF) to me but they claim it was as new and seem to want compensation. I am already having problems with the builders wanting extra money for things that were included in the quote originally in my opinion and I'm worried they will try and palm this off to me. Am I liable or are they? Would my insurance cover this kind of thing (I'm not insured for accidental damage but does this apply to accidentally damaging the neighbour's property?)

shaun_from_Africa

If they are reputable builders then they should have public liability insurance in place, something that is specifically to cover losses incurred by third parties as a result of something done by the builders.

Have you fully paid the builders? If not, you could consider withholding some of the final payment to cover the damage but if you do this, make sure that your builder is fully aware of what is happening.
If you've fully paid up, what you may have to do is to pay for the repairs yourself and then try to recoup the costs from your builders.
Do you by any chance have any legal aid or legal advice provided with your home insurance?

Carrot007

I would have expected them to make a temporary repair with some plastic sheet and duck tape to avoid that sort of eventuality.

They sound incompitent to me.

frenchbird1

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

If they are reputable builders then they should have public liability insurance in place, something that is specifically to cover losses incurred by third parties as a result of something done by the builders.

I found a "Certificate of Employer's Liability Insurance" in the paperwork they gave us is that the same?
We haven't paid them the final instalment yet as we haven't received the building's regulation certificate but as I said,we are already having problems with them about "extra expenses". I can't imagine they will make it easy for us on this.
They did cover the hole with something but it has been raining quite a lot and the water went through.

SailorSam

When my neighbour was having an extension built, their builders layed big sheets of thick plywood on my garage roof in case they dropped anything. Perhaps yours should do the same sort of thing.

frenchbird1

SailorSam wrote: »

When my neighbour was having an extension built, their builders layed big sheets of thick plywood on my garage roof in case they dropped anything. Perhaps yours should do the same sort of thing.

They should have, but they didn't.

casper_g

frenchbird1 wrote: »

I found a "Certificate of Employer's Liability Insurance" in the paperwork they gave us is that the same?

No. Employers Liability Insurance covers the builder's liability to an employee, not to the public/third parties. That is what would be covered by Public Liability Insurance.

frenchbird1

casper_g wrote: »

No. Employers Liability Insurance covers the builder's liability to an employee, not to the public/third parties. That is what would be covered by Public Liability Insurance.

Their website says they have it but it's not in the documents I have.

moneyistooshorttomention

Are you able to take a screenshot of their website?

Then you'd have some proof they have public liability cover (even if they don't iyswim).

maninthestreet

If the neighbour's son knew that conservatory roof was damaged, why didn't he take steps to move the shelving unit away from the hole in the roof? He has a duty to mitigate is losses, not inflate them due to his inactions.

phill99

I think you need to stop messing around. You now need to pay someone (double glazing repair company) to come and fix the roof and then deduct the cost off of the money you owe to the builder. this could end up as a neighbour dispute which I am sure you wish to avoid.