liability if neighbours wall fall down

jennie65

The wall dividing my neighbours garden and my driveway has been compromised by his plants and is leaning toward my drive, large cracks have developed along it and it is beginning to look like it may go.  If this falls - at best it will block my drive - at worst it will damage my car. 

if the worst happens - is my car covered by his house insurance, or will i have to claim on my own car insurance

Thanks for any advice

unforeseen

As you are aware that the wall is liable to collapse then it is incumbent on you to mitigate any losses that you might suffer by E.G. not putting your car in a position where the wall may damage it.
It will probably be a fault claim on your car insurance as you were aware that the wall was unstable but continued to park there. 

dj1471

Are you sure that he owns the wall rather than it being a shared boundary?

GDB2222

I suppose that car insurance would definitely cover this?

unforeseen

Car insurance may well refuse to cover if they become aware that the policyholder knew that the wall was in a dangerous state. 

Jeepers_Creepers

Whose wall is it, Jennie? If yours, get it fixed. If your neighb's, then you are going to need to apply some pressure.

But, as explained above, since you are aware of the risk, then you - annoyingly - have some liability if you continue to park your car there, knowing the wall is weak.

To apply pressure, get in touch with your house's LegProt - but bear in mind that this proves you know the wall is unstable. They will likely try the "putting on notice" approach on your neighb which essentially says, "We are PYON that your wall is in an unsafe condition, so should it now fall you are liable for any damage caused..." Basically, the neighb cannot now deny knowing about it, so if they don't sort it, they are fully liable. (If they weren't aware it was weak when it fell down, then they'd likely be covered!)

It doesn't mean they'll fix it tho'...

There might be more powerful methods they can use, I don't know. Call them up and ask?

I take it you reckon that simply asking the neighb to sort it won't work?

ciderboy2009

OP - what did your neighbour say when you told them about the potential problem?

binao

How high is the wall?

twopenny

It depends. Your car insurance may not cover this, neither your home insurance unless you've taken garden cover.
Besides if it's your neighbours wall you would claim on their insurance.
Better to have the conversation with them now than when it falls.

Sandtree

Your car insurance would cover it, your home insurance certainly wouldn't (you cannot sue yourself).

You need to identify who actually owns the wall in the first as the matter is clearly more complex if its your wall as its then your responsibility to make sure it doesn't fall in the first place and if you are alleging the wall is being damaged by your neighbour then you need to deal with that before it falls.

If its your neighbours wall then you need to make them aware of the issues with it and raise your concern of collapse. If there are that many plants against it that they are causing damage they may not even be able to see it. To claim from them, or their insurance, in the future you would need to know that they reasonably knew about the problem and didn't take reasonable steps to prevent the collapse. An easy task to do if you can point to an email/letter sent X months ago etc.