Money Moral Dilemma: Should we pay to repair our neighbours' car?

Fireflyaway

No that's why they have insurance. Unless you were negligent in some way it was an accident. These days people don't seem to grasp the concept of an accident and are always looking to blame someone.

jazmad

There are lots of wrong statements about the insurance position here. In cases of fire you are only legally liable for third party losses if the fire started through your negligence (well established in case law). So, for example, if your house catches fire and destroys your neighbour's house, you are not liable unless it was your negligence that started the fire (e.g. you left a bonfire unattended in the garden). In this case, your home insurer would pay for both losses (or more likely reimburse the other home insurer who would settle the neighbours' claim).

In this case, my guess is the cause of the fire is unknown and your insurance company is therefore not admitting liability for third party losses. It would be up to the other party (or their insurer) to prove the fire was started due to your negligence. For damage to a van, I very much doubt they would incur the cost of investigating and potentially pursuing this and your insurer will know this.

I don't think the person should pay anything. If we assume it was arson, then a single act has damaged two vehicles and the fact the fire started in one or other is irrelevant. Up to the neighbours if they claim or sort it out themselves.

ska_lover

Yes you should deal with it and pay for repairs. I realise it wasn't negligence etc but it certainly isn't fair for the neighbours to loose their NCB through parking on their own driveway..and could sour relationships big time if you leave it as it is

I lost my NCB for a few months last year whilst having been the victim of a 'crash for cash' was being investigated and the price doubled - even though ive been driving nearly 18 years and never claimed. (Got it my NCB back now though after it was proven)

I know if i was your neighbour and this happened I would be expecting you to deal with it - rather than my premium be hiked up - your 'fault' or not - the fire came from your car

Marvel1

If they didn't protect their NCB that's their problem, if they were waiting for me to sort it, they would be waiting a long time.

Who cares about neighbour relations, they won't say good morning anymore, oh well.

mjm3346

Your vehicle, your responsibility if it caused the damage (whatever the cause of the fire was), would not be the last "accident" if you did not pay up pronto.

rama0927

The fire was not your fault, therefore you should not pay for the damage to your neighbour's car. Think of it this way, as you are having to claim on your insurance you are going to have increased premiums yourself, due to this accident which wasn't your fault. Therefore your neighbour should be expected to do the same thing. This is what insurance is for.

As for whether your insurer should pay for the damage caused to another vehicle, I do not know enough about it so I'll leave it to the others!

ConMan

This needs to be moved to the insurance thread imo. People commenting don't understand how claims work.

Morally? Me, I'd say no I wouldn't pay. Sue me, I doubt you'd get far.

ed1178

Loads of comments referring to protected no claims bonus- unfortunately few seem to realise that this protects the discount on your premium, not the premium itself, so a claim will still result in a rise next year. Maximum no claims discount is usually around 75%, so you will still get 75% off your basic premium, but this is calculated on risk / claim history- so if you have had a claim it will rise.

Many years ago I worked for a car insurance telesales provider, it was truly a,aging how many people though PNCD meant their premiums were somehow protected from rises caused by claims.