Garden wall

mikeeboy

Someone has ploughed into my garden wall, leaving a pile of rubble on my lawn. Being on the corner of an estate, this wall is quite long. About 35m long (including the bit up the side of the drive) 1m or so high, rock face bricks with pillars every so often. As well as the hole, part of the wall standing is damaged.

The insurance company has offered to pay about 14m of wall plus 50% towards the rest. Leaving me with a bill close to £2,000.

If I just have the 14m I will have brand new wall, adjoining 'old' wall, which in my opinion wouldn't really look good.

Should I be entitled to a whole new wall?

EdGasket

A good builder should be able to match the bricks or use secondhand bricks of a similar or the same type. You will only get it repaired.

Aretnap

It would depend on the terms of the policy, but it sounds analogous to presence/absence of "matching set" cover.

In other words, if you damage one kitchen unit, or one sofa from a three piece suite, a high end insurance policy will often include matching set cover - which means that if an exact match for the damaged unit is no longer available then they'll buy you a whole new kitchen, or a whole new three piece suite, so that you still have a matching set.

A cheapo policy, OTOH, will not have this feature and will only replace the damaged item - so if you can't find an exact match then you're stuck with a kitchen or a three piece suite where the items no longer match each other perfectly. The Financial Ombudsman has modified this slightly and said that if you want to replace the whole set the insurer should contribute 50% of the cost of the other items. But they don't have to pay the full cost - if you wanted the full cost covering you should have paid the extra for a policy with matching set cover.

It sounds like the insurers are applying the latter principle to the wall. Not sure whether the terms of your particular policy would allow them to do that, but by analogy with the matching set situation it doesn't seem like it's automatically an unreasonable thing for them to do.

You might try claiming the extra £2000 (along with your excess) from the driver's insurance company as an uninsured loss - not sure whether you'd be able to but it would be worth investigating. If your home insurance policy comes with legal expenses cover then you should be able to get advice/assistance through that.

(Of course if you or the builder can find bricks which are a good match the problem doesn't really arise - the above is written on the assumption that you can't).

paddedjohn

A good bricky would be able to reuse the old brick,

mikeeboy

OK, thanks guys, some things to ponder :undecided

Jlo31

Was it a car that hit your wall and were they insured?

mikeeboy

Jlo31 wrote: »

Was it a car that hit your wall and were they insured?

Yes & Yes.

Jlo31

Just wondered if you contacted the third party insurance directly, whether they would be more helpful with getting your wall fixed (I'm making an assumption that at the moment you are doing through your home insurance (they will end up recouping their costs from the third party anyway)

mikeeboy

Jlo31 wrote: »

Just wondered if you contacted the third party insurance directly, whether they would be more helpful with getting your wall fixed (I'm making an assumption that at the moment you are doing through your home insurance (they will end up recouping their costs from the third party anyway)

I had that option but foolishly thought going through my own insurance (on the basis they'd be claiming it back) would give me a better deal. I think now, that just by claiming it's going to affect future premiums, and it doesn't seem that I am any better off!!

paddedjohn

mikeeboy wrote: »

I had that option but foolishly thought going through my own insurance (on the basis they'd be claiming it back) would give me a better deal. I think now, that just by claiming it's going to affect future premiums, and it doesn't seem that I am any better off!!

Even claiming off the cars insurance will bump up your premiums, stuffed either way