Home insurance coverage question - damage from wall collapse

AbiY

davidmcn said:

Why are you paying for it if it isn't your liability? That's madness, if there's insurance covering it. I suppose you could offer a contribution to her excess/higher premiums if you really wanted. 

I guess I just feel responsible, she’s quite an anxious lady and it was quite a shock for her to find the back of my building in her garden when she came home! I guess I don’t want to cause her any more hassle, her garden won’t be accessible for however long it takes to makes the repairs to the building. 

AbiY

Aretnap said:

AbiY said:

Thanks all so much for you help. I think the negligence angle might be tricky because I don’t have any visibility of that side of the building as it faces in to the neighbours garden. Although I suppose arguably I could have carried out periodic inspections... but that’s not something that ever occurred to me!
I don’t want the neighbour to have to claim on her insurance, it doesn’t feel fair that her premiums could go up when it’s my building. I think I’m just going to have to sell a kidney to pay for the repairs and damage(!!!) and accept that my insurance isn’t going to cover anything!
Thank you all so much for you help, it’s much appreciated 😊

Most homeowner don't have their buildings professionally inspected regularly and there isn't an expectation that they should. Negligence is more likely to be in play if the condition was such that an ordinary person would have realised that the wall was dangerous.

The easiest way for your neighbour to demonstrate negligence would be if she had noticed the wall's poor condition herself, asked you to do something about it, and you hadn't done anything. Otherwise, if it wasn't obvious to her, why should have it been obvious to you? 

Most of the things that your neighbour could claim on her insurance for are things that would not have been her fault - storm damage, floods, burglaries, most fires; none of those things would be her fault, but they'd still mean her premiums going up. I don't think this is really any different. Not her fault but not yours either, just one of those random bits of bad luck which are precisely what people buy insurance to cover. 

If you really want to help out I'd suggest that you offer a contribution towards her excess and/or higher premiums rather than start selling organs to cover the whole claim. But if I were in yoir neighbours shoes I wouldn't be asking for money from you or accepting it - it's not reasonable to expect you to pay for an accident which you couldn't really have done anything about IMO. 

Perhaps I should have the conversation and see what excesses etc would have to be paid. The value of the damage and any expected increase in premiums might not be worth the claim at all I guess...

Korkyb

Just wondering...

If she did claim off her insurance (with you offering to pay any out of pocket expense) is there any chance that her insurance company might then chase you to cover the claim & their expenses?

Hopefully not - that could work out an even more expensive scenario.

Sandtree

Korkyb said:

If she did claim off her insurance (with you offering to pay any out of pocket expense) is there any chance that her insurance company might then chase you to cover the claim & their expenses?

Hopefully not - that could work out an even more expensive scenario.

In which case the OP would pass it to their insurers to deal with as appropriate.

I mean if you wanted to do it real belts and braces you could explicitly state that the reimbursement of the excess was done as a guesture of goodwill on a without prejudice basis.

AbiY

I hadn’t thought of that Korkyb, that’s definitely worth considering.
I think Sandtree’s suggestion would be sensible as a preventative...
Thank you all for your helpful comments, I’ve learnt a lot from this episode!