liability for damage incurred in private road

kaybeetee1

We live in a private road which does not have a management company and hasnt since the road was built in 1940s / 1950s. The road has never been adopted by the local authority.

We have always understood that the individual property owners were resposible for the repair of the road that fronts their property, up the centre of the road.

Whilst the road in front of our property is not as level as it once was, there are no pot holes just uneven concrete slabs which have cracked and subsided around a manhole cover, due to 60/70 years of vehicle usage.

Would the liability cover in our Home Insurance Policy cover a claim for damage to a vehicle or contents of a vehicle using the road?

eddddy

It's a bit of a complex question. In general, home insurance covers 3rd party liability (i.e. liability for losses caused to other people, as a result owning your home), but...

On one hand, if you're aware that a driver behaving reasonably could damage their car on your piece of road, the damage is foreseeable, and therefore you're probably being negligent in not doing anything about it. So the insurance company might resist a claim.

On the other hand, if a driver behaving reasonably (e.g. driving at a reasonable speed, looking where they're going etc) could see the condition of the road, they'd probably be negligent for not avoiding the potholes. So the driver has no basis for a claim.

There's also the question of whether they are driving on the private road with consent, or whether they are trespassing.

Sandtree

kaybeetee1 said:

We have always understood that the individual property owners were resposible for the repair of the road that fronts their property, up the centre of the road. 

This is your first problem, you need to be sure what your legal responsibility is and if that section of the road is considered to be part of your property on the deeds.
Secondly - assuming you don't have a blanket policy, have you included the road section in the Building's rebuild costs?

As @eddddy says, a condition of your policy will be that your property is maintained in a good state of repair and so even if you pass all the above hurdles the fact its not in a good state of repair as evidenced by it causing damage to a vehicle means a claim would likely to be declined.