Council Tree Branch Falls Onto Car

10shinhan

Hi Guys

The Mrs car was parked on a public road, owned by the local council (as well as the trees), later when she came back, the car was completely damaged, windscreen shattered and heavy damage to the bonnet and roof (glass bits everywhere). There was a note from the tree surgeon (contracted by the council) explaining damage has been done from a falling branch and he gave a contact number to claim from the councils insurance.

I called the council and made a claim, they told me it would take a while and advised me to make a claim for the windscreen under my insurance (which I paid £75).

After a long wait I received an email from Zurich explaining that the council hadn't been negligent, therefore they were not to blame and would not pay for the damage..

I was flabbergasted. This cannot be right can it?

PS especially when I've seen news stories of councils paying out for this (and rightly so):

"Last year it [reading council] had to pay £1,721.81 because a tree branch fell on a vehicle, while the year before it paid out a total of more than £6,000 for trees falling on private property."

Aylesbury_Duck

It cannot be right. A tree cannot own a road.

We need a bit more information. Was the tree surgeon carrying out work when the branch fell, or was he there doing works in response to the fallen branch? It may be a bit like potholes in that if the council was informed of a branch being potentially dangerous and did nothing and subsequently it caused an accident, they would be negligent. If the branch spontaneously fell as a result of wind for example, how are they negligent? They can't be expected to inspect every tree daily.

Car_54

It seems the OP has two options.

1. Claim from his own insurer (whom he should already have informed), or

2. Press his claim against the council, going to court if necessary. However, he will have to establish negligence. The council should have records of regular inspection and/or maintenance of the tree, which can be accessed by an FOI request.

Geoff1963

Did this occur in a severe storm, or just fell by itself ? If the former, that might be an exceptional circumstance.

Johno100

Geoff1963 wrote: »

Did this occur in a severe storm, or just fell by itself ? If the former, that might be an exceptional circumstance.

Or did it fall due to the negligence of the council employed tree surgeon?

10shinhan

Thanks for the responses.

@Aylesbury Duck I meant the tree and the road is owned and maintained by the council. I am not sure about the worker as that was not explained to me if he was responsible (who's going to admit that if it were his fault?). They can't be expected to inspect daily, but they should take responsibility for it.

@Car 54 I have informed my insurance, I will have to pay excess to fix the car (which I won't get back).

@Geoff1963 There wasn't a storm.

@Johno100 Shame there isn't CCTV, it's all a bit suspicious to me.

PasturesNew

Clarify:

A] The branch just fell off all on its own.
B] A tree surgeon was tending to the tree and c0cked up and the branch fell on the car.

Mercdriver

The difficulty is that you have to be able to prove on the balance of probabilities that the council was singularly negligent in relation to that particular tree. A tree branch can be weakened by a storm but not fall for some period of time. We had a tree branch go through a glasshouse at home. There hadn't been a storm for some time.

Mojisola

10shinhan wrote: »

There was a note from the tree surgeon (contracted by the council) explaining damage has been done from a falling branch and he gave a contact number to claim from the councils insurance.

Unless the tree surgeon is a council employee, it's unlikely the council will pay up.

A tree surgeon should have his own insurance against accidents like this.

Mercdriver

Mojisola wrote: »

Unless the tree surgeon is a council employee, it's unlikely the council will pay up.

A tree surgeon should have his own insurance against accidents like this.

That's if it was indeed a tree surgeon related incident. It might be that someone saw the damage and the branch and called the council who sent someone out.

10shinhan

@PasturesNew The tree surgeon didn't admit fault on the note he left, just explained a tree branch fell and that I can contact the insurance department to make a claim.

@Mercdriver Yes this is why the my local council won't pay out, but Reading council did pay out for a similar thing (as quoted above).