Neighbour's bin damaged my property - should I claim?

mkl_404

Hello! It's my first post here as I'm not sure how to deal with the situation. 
I own a house with a garage which is detached from the property. I rarely look around my garage if it makes sense but recently noticed that my neighbour keeps their bins behind my garage. Now, I wouldn't mind really but these bins have caused damage to my render at the bin height. In order to fix it, I would need to render it again and repaint it. 
I believe that they are responsible for the damage but I am not sure they would be legally liable... I can ask them not to keep their bins there (especially that they are, in theory, required to keep them at their property) but when it comes to fixing it, if I claim from my insurance, surely it will increase my premium despite me not being at fault here... 
Any advice will be appreciated!

Flugelhorn

I wonder if the insurance company would consider it "wear and tear" - who knows? certainly by the time you have paid excess and got higher premiums it might be better just to pay for it yourself. Ask the neighbour to remove the bins, just say you want to put something there yourself (it is your land I presume?)

TELLIT01

Can you provide photos?  It seems extreme that a bin could cause so much damage to sound render that it would all need to be replaced.  I don't think it's something you could claim off your insurance.

prettyandfluffy

If you claim on your insurance, your future premiums will increase and the excess might make the claim not worth pursuing anyway.  Add some photos and people can advise on the best way forward, in the meantime I would ask your neighbour to move the bins from your property.

DullGreyGuy

mkl_404 said:

Hello! It's my first post here as I'm not sure how to deal with the situation. 
I own a house with a garage which is detached from the property. I rarely look around my garage if it makes sense but recently noticed that my neighbour keeps their bins behind my garage. Now, I wouldn't mind really but these bins have caused damage to my render at the bin height. In order to fix it, I would need to render it again and repaint it. 
I believe that they are responsible for the damage but I am not sure they would be legally liable... I can ask them not to keep their bins there (especially that they are, in theory, required to keep them at their property) but when it comes to fixing it, if I claim from my insurance, surely it will increase my premium despite me not being at fault here... 
Any advice will be appreciated!

You could only claim off your insurance if you can show it was a one off event that caused the damage rather than the gradual action of it knocking against it every time they are used or emptied etc. 

Grumpy_chap

A practical solution might be to install a timber baton at the height that the bins are.

mkl_404

Flugelhorn said:

I wonder if the insurance company would consider it "wear and tear" - who knows? certainly by the time you have paid excess and got higher premiums it might be better just to pay for it yourself. Ask the neighbour to remove the bins, just say you want to put something there yourself (it is your land I presume?)

Funnily enough the land behind it is technically owned by another neighbour, it is just a strip of land (bushes) backing onto pedestrian access where the "offending" neighbours keep their bins.

mkl_404

TELLIT01 said:

Can you provide photos?  It seems extreme that a bin could cause so much damage to sound render that it would all need to be replaced.  I don't think it's something you could claim off your insurance.

I am unable to upload photos as I am new here. It is the repeated knocks etc. whenever they move their bins I believe as my own bins caused similar damage to my wall (and I now keep them slightly away from the wall for that very reason). Now the damage caused by theirs is more significant, they must have noticed it but (I presume) simply don't care...

elsien

If it’s not your land, unless they are the amenable type, I’m not sure you have any power to get them to shift the bins?