Small claims

hevgarden

hi, 
I’m looking for advice regarding how best to claim costs for fixing damage to my garden following a flood from a local building site leak. Do I go small claims, via my insurance or another route? 

After almost a year of discussions with the building company and land/development owner, they agreed  to pay costs to returf and tidy my garden which had been underwater for several months following a leak on their building site. They had always agreed to put right any damage as a ‘good will gesture’ and insisted it wasn’t their fault. However, long story short, after months of trying they were unable to get a landscaper to do the job and asked me to get quotes and they would pay reasonable costs. They finally agreed costs at Christmas (paying most of what I needed to put it right so I agreed) but then retracted the offer saying some of my other neighbours had also asked for repair work and they couldn’t pay us all. 

What do I do next? 

user1977

hevgarden said:

They had always agreed to put right any damage as a ‘good will gesture’ and insisted it wasn’t their fault. 

Well, was it? What exactly happened?

hevgarden

There was a leak on their building site, on a private connection which was eventually found by united utilities and they were asked to fix it. They did fix it and the water receded in our gardens (months later). 

Hard to say if it was their ‘fault’ that the leak was caused, not sure how you would prove that. But it was a new connection they’d installed and on their land. 

user1977

hevgarden said:

There was a leak on their building site, on a private connection which was eventually found by united utilities and they were asked to fix it. They did fix it and the water receded in our gardens (months later). 

Hard to say if it was their ‘fault’ that the leak was caused, not sure how you would prove that. But it was a new connection they’d installed and on their land. 

I expect the legal principle is the same as e.g. a leak from an upstairs flat - the owner is only liable if they've been negligent, otherwise everybody takes the risk of unforeseen events and gravity happening.

Manxman_in_exile

As an almost completely useless contribution to this thread, I ought to know the answer as I did my graduate dissertation on what is known as the rule in Rylands -v- Fletcher*.  But I'm afraid my dissertation was 43 years ago and I have no idea what conclusion I came to as I was desperately trying to finish it in time.

FWIW, I'd have thought it was a nuisance case or might hinge on whether there was an agreement that the building firm would recompense the OP.  The fact they can't afford to compensate everybody isn't relevant to their liability.  (They should be claiming on their insurance any way.  If I were the OP I'd point this out to them).

*If anybody's interested they can read about it here.  It rings a few bells at least... Rylands v Fletcher - Wikipedia

ThumbRemote

hevgarden said:

hi, 
I’m looking for advice regarding how best to claim costs for fixing damage to my garden following a flood from a local building site leak. Do I go small claims, via my insurance or another route? 

After almost a year of discussions with the building company and land/development owner, they agreed  to pay costs to returf and tidy my garden which had been underwater for several months following a leak on their building site. They had always agreed to put right any damage as a ‘good will gesture’ and insisted it wasn’t their fault. However, long story short, after months of trying they were unable to get a landscaper to do the job and asked me to get quotes and they would pay reasonable costs. They finally agreed costs at Christmas (paying most of what I needed to put it right so I agreed) but then retracted the offer saying some of my other neighbours had also asked for repair work and they couldn’t pay us all. 

What do I do next? 

Do you have this in writing (letter, email)? If so, their liability is irrelevant. They have made an offer, you have accepted it. They cannot get out of it now. 

If you have legal cover as part of your insurance it might be easiest to go via them. Otherwise, small claims court.