Claim for Garden wall

Samsung_Note2

Not sure if this is in the right place...

My garden wall is on the point of falling down,it separates my front garden with next door.

Next doors tree roots have basically grown so big its lifted the wall,leading to it becoming very unstable..they have fixed the top two courses once as a "Gesture of good will" but said its not there problem.

Just wondering do i need to make a claim on house insurance and see if insurance make a claim from next door or just pay for the wall to come down and rebuilt and wait for same thing to happen again when roots get bigger.

Id have thought neighbour would be liable for the damage.:(

Blibble

You would not be able to claim from your neighbour's policy unless you can prove their negligence caused their tree's roots to grow - I'd have thought the opposite of negligence caused this.

You would need to assess your own buildings' policy T&Cs to assess whether cover would be in place if you claimed off your own policy.

OJ32

I don't agree with Blibble's advice above. Your neighbour (and by extension their insurance provider) would be liable if a tree on their land caused damage to your property. To prove it you may need a specialist arboricultural report confirming it was the roots that caused the damage.

Blibble

OJ32 wrote: »

I don't agree with Blibble's advice above. Your neighbour (and by extension their insurance provider) would be liable if a tree on their land caused damage to your property. To prove it you may need a specialist arboricultural report confirming it was the roots that caused the damage.

If you lived in a semi-detached property and your neighbour had a fire at the property, causing smoke damage to your property, a claim would need to be made against your insurance for damages suffered by you. Same goes if your neighbour had an unforeseeable leak causing damages to your property. I see no reason why this would be different for a tree root as a peril, but happy to be corrected.

Zorillo

There's an element of control and inevitability about roots causing damage. I think negligence could be in play here.

Blibble

Zorillo wrote: »

There's an element of control and inevitability about roots causing damage. I think negligence could be in play here.

How would you stop the roots causing the damage?

Zorillo

Blibble wrote: »

How would you stop the roots causing the damage?

Prune the tree, pollard the tree, remove the tree entirely.

EdGasketTheSecond

Blibble wrote: »

If you lived in a semi-detached property and your neighbour had a fire at the property, causing smoke damage to your property, a claim would need to be made against your insurance for damages suffered by you. Same goes if your neighbour had an unforeseeable leak causing damages to your property. I see no reason why this would be different for a tree root as a peril, but happy to be corrected.

That is incorrect. I had a fire and neighbour claimed from my insurance for damage to their property.
In this case the owner of the tree is liable for damage to the wall. Ask neighbour for their contents insurance details (liability cover is usually with the contents insurance) and put in a claim; otherwise claim from the your neighbour and they can either settle directly or pass it on to their insurers. Either way sounds like the tree root or entire tree needs to come out.

Blibble

Without prying EdGasket, were you liable / responsible for the fire in the eyes of the insurer? Best of luck, of course, if you can make a successful claim from your neighbour's insurer however in my experience negligence would need to be proved (could reasonable action by a reasonable person have been performed to negate the event occurring?), and I'm not sure pulling up the tree would be included in this. Let us know how it goes!

Samsung_Note2

Blibble wrote: »

You would not be able to claim from your neighbour's policy unless you can prove their negligence caused their tree's roots to grow - I'd have thought the opposite of negligence caused this.

You would need to assess your own buildings' policy T&Cs to assess whether cover would be in place if you claimed off your own policy.

Sorry not sure what you mean by the opposite of negligence..are you suggesting they planted the tree on purpose..lol

Tree is about 8 inches from wall and you can see where the roots have lifted the entire wall..and its at the highest where tree is.

Obviously i dont wish to pay a few hundred quid to repair the wall when all that will happen is the tree will lift them again as it continues to grow,:(

Samsung_Note2

Big thanks to all who replied/gave advice its very much appreciated and will drop neighbour a letter (its a Buy to let so haven't seen them in a couple of years and tenants constantly revolving).