Car hit by falling tree branch?

anotherbob

My neighbour's car was hit by a branch falling from a tree last evening. He was lucky and was unhurt. The car looks like a write-off to me, damage to bonnet, pan-roof and windscreen. He was told by people living opposite the accident that the tree was on local authority land, and as a result of a similar occurrence some months ago it had been marked as unsafe and needing attention, since which time nothing had been done.
I assume my neighbour's insurers will pay up but I wonder if the matter of the tree's condition might affect the claim.
 

DullGreyGuy

The insurer may decide to try and pursue the tree owner to recover their outlay and thus making it a non-fault claim if they are successful. 

CardinalWolsey

We made a claim against the land owner directly when similar happened to us. Their insurer paid up. We didn't need to involve our insurance at all.

Car_54

CardinalWolsey said:

We made a claim against the land owner directly when similar happened to us. Their insurer paid up. We didn't need to involve our insurance at all.

By 'involve', do you mean you didn't tell them?

CliveOfIndia

In situations like this, you're sometimes forced to claim off your own insurance and take the hit on your no-claims discount - especially where the owner of the tree cannot reasonably be held to blame.

anotherbob said:

as a result of a similar occurrence some months ago it had been marked as unsafe and needing attention, since which time nothing had been done.

I assume my neighbour's insurers will pay up but I wonder if the matter of the tree's condition might affect the claim.

In this instance the condition of the tree will in all likelihood benefit your neighbour.  If it can be proved that the council were aware that the tree was dangerous and that they took no action, that would greatly improve the chances of them being held liable.  As DullGreyGuy says, your neighbour's insurance would likely try to recover their costs from the council's insurers.

In fact - and I'm not sure on this point - but I wonder if your neighbour could claim directly off the council?  I know you're supposed to inform your own insurer of any accident, whether at fault or not, but ..........

DullGreyGuy

CliveOfIndia said:

In fact - and I'm not sure on this point - but I wonder if your neighbour could claim directly off the council?  I know you're supposed to inform your own insurer of any accident, whether at fault or not, but ..........

Making any claim and not informing your insurers is a bit of a risky move... if two people think its was equally their faults or one has no damage and decide neither will claim then those are the safer things to "forget" to mention (eg car door -v- bollard). 

Councils tend to have large retentions because claims are inevitable and no point paying IPT, profit margin etc on what you know you'll be paying out each year but most still use insurers claims facilities and data is still reported on CUE

anotherbob

Thanks for the replies and comment. The accident has been reported to the insurers, and I believe the matter of the tree's condition has been passed to them also. Time will tell. 

Bigphil1474

OP, would be worth them contacting the council. It may be, however, that whilst it appears nothing has been done with the dangerous tree, it may have been inspected/treated etc. and not deemed to need any further work. If it was me, I'd try a claim with the council and advise my insurers of such, in case I had to go back to them when the council fob me off.

Car_54

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, would be worth them contacting the council. It may be, however, that whilst it appears nothing has been done with the dangerous tree, it may have been inspected/treated etc. and not deemed to need any further work. If it was me, I'd try a claim with the council and advise my insurers of such, in case I had to go back to them when the council fob me off.

The problem with that approach is that the OP's neighbour still has a badly damaged car.

His insurers would sort that out PDQ: the council wouldn't.