Car damaged by Neighbours Property

dizzyblonde2015

Hi
I don't know if this is the right place to come for advise with my predicament but here goes.
My car was parked at my Parents house overnight in December. The next morning we found that a Rattan Sofa had been blown off the "Roof Top Terrace"of one of the neighbours houses and landed on the roof of my car causing a lot of damage (£8k's worth). The neighbour was really sorry when she was shown the damage her sofa had caused to my car and had no issue with phoning her house insurance for a claim number.
Unfortunately her insurance company don't want to pay for my car to be repaired.  Apparently I am supposed to claim for the repair on my Car Insurance and then my car insurance will try to claim off her house insurance for the repair cost.  
I told her that I wasn't prepared to claim on my car insurance because it isn't my fault that she didn't secure her Sofa on her roof terrace. I have a high Excess on my car insurance to keep the premium down, plus if I make a claim it will affect my renewal cost. 
I asked her to phone her insurance company again and ask what her public liability policy covers because I believed it would cover her in this situation. She did and they have now given me a claim number but in the email they have sent they say that I have to prove she has been negligent for them to pay for the repair to my car.  They also suggest I seek "legal counsel" which I know will not be cheap.
Has any one had any experience with proving negligence/carelessness etc in an insurance claim?
I'm just wondering if they are just trying to deter me from pursuing the claim against her
She was lucky it didn't hit a person!
To put it into context I have added a photo to show how far up the Sofa came from, the red arrow shows where it was and the car is parked where it was parked overnight.
Thank you in advance

Brie

What sort of individual doesn't tether lightweight furniture like that.  It's one thing if it's in a garden at ground level but leaving it to waft about from that height is ridiculous.

Phone you motor insurance.  You have to inform them in any case.

Aretnap

If the neighbours insurers won't offer you a settlement then I'm not sure that you're in a very strong position I'm afraid.

You have no right to make a claim against your neighbours insurance - it's her policy, not yours, and it exists to protect her, not to protect you. The only right you have is to issue a court claim against your neighbour and try to prove in court that she is liable for the damage. She can then ask her insurer to deal with the court claim on her behalf - if she chooses to.

To prove that she was liable for the damage you would have to prove that she was negligent. Negligence means failure to take the level of care  that would be expected of a reasonable person. The fact that it was her property that caused the damage didn't make her liable, nor necessarily does the fact that with hindsight it could probably have been secured better. You would have to convince a judge that the danger should have been obvious beforehand to a normal person who is reasonably careful, but not an expert on how sofas behave in storms.

(My only answer to whether or not you would be able to do that is "maybe". Remember that the insurer will be sending a professional to argue the opposite, if they don't agree to settle before the hearing).

Alternatively you can do as suggested - claim off your own policy and let them worry about claiming the costs (or not) from the neighbour. They will have more experience if dealing with these things than you, and if they do demonstrate liability, you will be able to claim your excess back from her insurer with little pushback. Or they might not, which would leave you out of pocket. But you would also be out of pocket if your car had been damaged by a stray branch from friends knows where, or by a hit and run driver in the night, or by floodwater or wild animals etc... presumably if you chose a large excess you judged that the risk of being out of pocket for something that wasn't your fault was a risk with taking?

mebu60

Usual route would be to go via your motor insurers. They will attempt to recover their costs from her insurers and reinstate your no claims bonus (assuming you haven't got protected NCD). You can claim your excess and any other mitigated uninsured losses from her / her insurers. None of that is guaranteed but more likely achievable than pursuing her / her insurers yourself.

As you say, incredibly fortunate it didn't strike a person. 

Keep_pedalling

I suppose it would be possible to claim from the neighbour through a small claims court but that would take a long time and you are going to have to prove negligence which is difficult to do so no guarantee of winning.

Realistically you are going to have to go through your insurance company and you are obliged to inform them anyway. You could then pursue the neighbour for your excess. 

Aretnap

One thought on negligence - can you find an assembly manual for the particular model of sofa involved? What, if anything, does the manual say about the need to secure it?

If it was not secured in accordance with the manufacturers clear instructions that might point towards negligence. OTOH if the manufacturer says nothing about a need to secure them, that argues against it being negligence - the consumer can't be expected to know more than the manufacturer.

(Having just googled Rattan Sofas I must say that (1) the assembly instructions for the particular model I looked at didn't say anything about a need to secure them and (2) it didn't look to my untrained eye like the sort of thing that I would expect to be lifted off a balcony and over a fence by a gust of wind. But maybe other models are more flimsy.)

dizzyblonde2015

Brie said:

What sort of individual doesn't tether lightweight furniture like that.  It's one thing if it's in a garden at ground level but leaving it to waft about from that height is ridiculous.

Phone you motor insurance.  You have to inform them in any case.

A negligent and careless individual doesn't, that's who.... thank you for seeing it for what it is. 
She has a shed up there too but thankfully that is tethered down.

rigolith

The fact that the shed is tied down makes negligence for not doing the same for the sofa more likely. Any reasonable person would see that the shed was fixed to the roof, strongly suggesting that things you there needed securing.

Hoenir

How big was the sofa? Generally not an inconsiderable weight.