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One year ago we lived in our previous semi when a storm occurred overnight and one of our roof ridge tiles was blown off and fell down into our neighbours property, landing onto the top and side of his wife's parked car in their driveway. In the morning I alerted them of this and immediately gave them our insurance details and copy of our valid roof guarantee certificate. The next day the neighbour got the damage assessed to the car and I rang Swinton then Ocasso to state the case, the roof had never raised any concerns in the past and was still only seven and a half years into its ten year guarantee. They informed me that this was 'an act of God' and was not payable given the weather and the information above. I informed my neighbour as he would have to pursue the matter himself or through his own insurance. Approximately 6 weeks later a second tile fell from our roof (this was due to damage caused to it by the first falling ridge tile) and again this hit his wife's car windscreen overnight. Our 'then' neighbour came to us and we felt so sorry for the second occurance that we agreed to pay the £300 or so cost incurred for repair. We had the roofing contractor come look at, repair and perform maintenance work on our roof immediately (no later than the day afterwards) on both these two occasions and our neighbour spoke with him personally also. Then around June 2015 a loss adjuster came to look at the roof as our neighbour had appointed a solicitor to our Insurers regarding the first fallen tile, he inspected and told me that they would not be paying him for the claim as the initial reasons still held. Our neighbour knew we were thinking of moving for nearer proximity to Secondry schools for our children and even asked for first look at the house before we proceeded with an estate agent. In the end we put up for sale and sold in Jan 2016 and moved out on 18/3/16 with no other concern or complaint made by our neighbour in all the time since July 2015. He then posts a Claim form to both of us requesting £1,525.84 from us for damages on or about 31/3/2015 with 7 sub points of negligence with no reference to the weather or lack of concern before it. I am very worried as to our next course of action. Do we proceed ourselves or can we have advice to the least costly outcome please. We think we only have 7 days left to respond now with the Bank Holidays we have just had.
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Re: Falling Roof Tile in last years storm.
"on the fiddle". I see no case here as your old neighbour has had plenty of recourse time to deal with this matter. Sounds like sour grapes or after a nice little pay out. Defend the claim online (MCOL) and submit your defence based on the previous occurrences with your insurers. Maybe get in touch with them also as they stated it was "an act of God". -
Re: Falling Roof Tile in last years storm.
Thanks so much for reply...unconfident (in my legal wordings)
but determined not to be trodden on!"Comment
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Re: Falling Roof Tile in last years storm.
Is this a genuine claim through the courts?
Does your ex neighbour's claim include a breakdown showing how they arrive at that figure?
Do you know if they claimed against their insurers for the damage?
If they did they are trying to obtain unjust enrichment..... which may provide you with a further defence.Comment
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Re: Falling Roof Tile in last years storm.
If it was your neighbours tile that caused damage to your car would you if no one else pays up claim from them the same as they are doing?Comment
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Re: Falling Roof Tile in last years storm.
No I wouldn't leave it so long and omit the actual facts of there being a storm on the night in question...no concerns or problems beforehand..Comment
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Re: Falling Roof Tile in last years storm.
I once read somewhere that there is no such thing as an Act of God in insurance terms. I couldn't believe it either. Claims arising from storm damage might be rejected if the insurer disputes the cause of the damage but they will never say it is because of an Act of God. Presumably this was your policy and you have checked the terms of the policy for a section that says Act of God?
Ironic isn't it....they wouldn't pay a few hundred quid for damage to your neighbours car, yet they may have to pay thousands in the legal expense of defending a claim, if you have legal expenses covered that is.
In your case, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum!Comment
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Re: Falling Roof Tile in last years storm.
The damage to the neighbour's car should have been covered by the liability section of the op's policy.
The reason for the falling tile is, with that sort of claim, immaterial. It would either be storm damage (ie damage caused by violent wind) or by the op's lack of building maintenance. In either case the liability section of the policy should kick in.
I did think the neighbours car insurers would have picked up on this and obtained reimbursement from OP, and perhaps this is what the claim is about.
The legal expenses section of OP's policy may well be underwritten by an insurer not connected with the rest of the policy, so they won't be concerned at the cost.
OP seems to have bought insurance from Swintons, and this may have been where problem started.
I worked for them once for a very short time years ago when their policy seemed to be use school leavers trained to tick boxes, but not really taught how to read and understand a policy wordingComment
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