Property Insurance and acts of God

Hal01977

Hi everyone 
Not sure if this question has been asked before? But here goes.
Over this weekend we've experienced high winds with gusts of 60mph and my neighbours fence is dangerously close to collapsing due to rotten fence posts. Its been in a poor state of repair for over 12 months now and I'm increasingly worried every time the wind gets up. The fence borders our drive to the rear and if it blew down would damage our cars. I know that fences aren't covered by house insurance but surely they would be if the home owner had been negligent? I have video evidence showing the poor state of the fence from February of this year. I've mentioned the fence to the neighbour on numerous occasions but he's done nothing to make it safe. What would be the correct action to take as I feel its also a safety issue as its access to our property. Just to add they are currently having a new deck and patio at a cost of £3500 so money is not the problem!

huckster

If the fence is that bad, you should not be parking near it, particularly during windy weather. To park next to a fence knowing it is in a poor state of repair, you have not taken reasonable action to prevent a loss and your Insurers may refuse a claim on that basis.

So you should stop parking next to the fence and tell the neighbour that your Insurers won't fully cover damage to your property, because of the poor state of repair the fences are in.

And if the fences are not repaired in reasonable time, you may have to contact the local Council and start to go down a legal route. Say that you want to try to avoid all of this hassle, as it will make it much more difficult for both, if there is a notifiable dispute between neighbours on record.

Hal01977

Parking of the drive is nigh on impossible due to other neighbours and the amount of vehicles they have. we have covenants in place which restrict types and numbers of vehicles i.e. no commercial vehicles etc. when we bought the house we paid extra as it had a drive long enough for four cars. These covenants seem un enforceable even though the properties are lease hold!  Its so annoying that people don't seem to have any principals or respect for anyone else anymore. We have recently had the fence replaced between ourselves and said neighbours garden at a cost of £1000 yet they seem unable to reciprocate in this instance. As for the insurance companies I wouldn't  be at all surprised if they failed to pay out if our cars were damaged due to being on the road at our home address as they are stated as parked on the drive at home. After all insurance, to me, is almost robbery with violence they will do anything to avoid paying out!!

unforeseen

I am sure that if you ask, your neighbour would be quite amenable to you repairing/replacing the fence since you are the one that has the problem with it.
I assume that you have done the necessary check to ascertain that it is owned by the neighbour and the boundary is their responsibility 

Hal01977

Yes the boundary is their responsibility and I've asked numerous times for it to be repaired. However nothing has been done!

unforeseen

Just take it down carefully and place it on their land if you consider it dangerous. Obviously speak to them first. 

huckster

Amend your Insurance to say now parked on road and pay extra premium. 

The more you make record of this issue and you continue to park on the driveway, the more difficult your position becomes.  If there is a sudden storm and fences blow into your cars causing expensive damage, then you will have a nightmare legal position on your hands. Insurers possibly refusing claims and you having to make a legal claim against your neighbours.

Give the neighbour last chance to remedy the situation before you escalate this further. Say you want to avoid legal conflict costing both money.

TELLIT01

If it's as rotten as suggested, some gentle persuasion should make it fall into their garden.

eddddy

Hal01977 said:

Yes the boundary is their responsibility and I've asked numerous times for it to be repaired. However nothing has been done!

People are responsible for losses resulting from their negligence.

If the neighbour is aware that their fence is rotten, and that it could fall over, they are probably negligent if they do nothing about it. (So they would be responsible for any losses you suffer as a result.)

However, there is also the argument that if you park next to a fence that you know is rotten and could fall over, you could also be negligent. It depends on whether it is reasonable for you to continue parking there. 

If there is nowhere else that you can park, perhaps it's reasonable for you to continue parking there. If there is somewhere else that you could park, it probably isn't reasonable for you to continue parking there.



As you can probably imagine, there are often big arguments over whether somebody has been negligent or not - and potentially very expensive court cases.

davidmcn

eddddy said:

If there is nowhere else that you can park, perhaps it's reasonable for you to continue parking there. If there is somewhere else that you could park, it probably isn't reasonable for you to continue parking there.

There's always somewhere else to park. It might not be as convenient as parking on your own driveway, but there's always somewhere else.