Car Damage to Garden Wall

DosgDinner

Hi All,
I have searched this forum but cannot find any threads that cover my situation.

Brief background, runaway car hits garden wall as handbrake not engaged. Driver admits liabilty, ins. co. contacted and admit liability. Didn't go through house insurance (I know !). 

Turns out the bricks used to build the wall were unique from Ryarsh who went out of business many years ago.

The legal position seems to be that the driver (not in car at the time) is liable only for the damaged section of wall. About 9m of the 10m wall is damaged, mainly by being moved off of its foundations. What I am trying to ascertain is: does anyone know what the legal position is if the bricks cannot be replaced ?

Any help would be appreciated.

DullGreyGuy

Legally speaking they are liable for the devaluation of the property, the fact that insurers pay for repairs is just that it is an easy proxy for loss of value. 

Have you tried reclamation yards or online brick matching services?

How many of the existing bricks can be reused? How many are you short? Any areas behind evergreen shrubs where a mismatched brick wouldn't be noticeable? 

Brie

A good proper brickie will manage to reuse a lot of the bricks and either match those missing or find a way to create a pleasing pattern.  Don't let them fob you off with a local cheapest repair type.  Insist it's done properly.

tacpot12

While I agree with Brie that you should not be fobbed off with a cheap repair, no insurer is going to pay for custom bricks to be made to exactly match your wall! They will pay for your wall to be rebuilt with the materials that are readily available. If you want to scour the reclamation yards to find more Ryarsh bricks yourself, this is the best way of imrpoving the quality of the final result.

Any loss in the value of your property due to good quality repair is going to be mininal and will not warrant the payment of any sum for the loss of quality. You might be aware of the repair, but anyone coming to view your house to buy it is probably not going to notice, unless the repair is done badly. 

DosgDinner

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies.
DullGreyGuy. Yes I have tried local merchants but not available anywhere.
Brie. I have a good guy lined up (and co-incidentally his father built the original wall !).

I am having a bit of a nightmare getting the car insurer to agree to anything - I am the third party.

I have been told by 3 different contractors that the wall will have to be demolished and re-buit. The cost of recliaming 90% of the wall will be even higher. I am trying to judge what the actual legal liability of the drivers insurer is.

DullGreyGuy

DosgDinner said:
I am trying to judge what the actual legal liability of the drivers insurer is.

Legally, it's the difference between what you could have sold your house for immediately before the accident and how much you could sell it for today with the damaged wall. As that is very hard to ascertain instead the insurer will payout the cost of repair. 

Sometimes it is cheaper to start from the beginning rather than fix the damage so ultimately submit 2 estimates, one for a rebuild and one for a fix and let them chose which they want to go for. 

DosgDinner

Hi DullGreyGuy,

Thanks. OK I understand that.
The insurer has passed the claim over to a claims management company and they are claiming the driver is only responsible for the cost of the damaged section, magically estimated at 50%! I will probably have to go to small claims to get anything but trying to work out what I can legally claim for. Probably not worth involving a solicitor as only likely to be about 8K.

caprikid1

Out of interest who is the insurer ?

DullGreyGuy

Hence the two quotes, just repair the bit and rebuild the whole thing. If the later is cheaper than the former you can show you are mitigating your losses however they are free to pay the higher amount for a repair job if they want 

DosgDinner

Hi caprikid

The big nautical group.

DosgDinner

caprikid1 said:

Out of interest who is the insurer ?

Sorry, just realised my answer may have appeared flippant. I am new here and not sure if naming is allowed ?