Wall damage, What to do now ?

Joint adjoining front wall with neigbour

Christmas eve, 2009 (21 months ago)
A car, came down the street with the lady driver running alongside steering it through the open drivers door,,
It hit three cars writing them off, then came through neighbours front wall and wrought iron gates, and through the adjoining wall
The police arrived and the car was still running sat on the remains of the wall with the front wheels running

Now all the damaged cars were replaced via her insurance in about three months.
The neighbour is fine, only he is not the owner, it is a buy to let affair

The the OWNER made the claim for the wall as it was most of his front wall wrought iron gates and the first 12' of the adjoining wall
I did not claim as I knew the neighbour had, and you can not claim twice for the same damage

Well he is hard to get hold of, it has to be through the letting agent and weeks turned into months, I keep getting put off, then a builder appeared to survey over 10 months ago
A couple of months ago, the owner told the neighbour he was getting it fixed

Today the neighbour tells me, that the owner is having his front wall replaced and having the joining wall completly removed and not replacing it, as he is having to pay for it himself as lady was not insured

(Well how come he put the claim in and all the other neighbours had their damage replaced)
(He is a poor landlord, all take , nil maintenance, no gardening done, well just in it for the profit)

It is an eyesore I have put up with for nearly two years now, the street looks like Beirut circa 1970

The neigbour that lives there is not happy, as one of the main concerns was the surrounding walls meant his children could play in the garden and not wander off

I really do not know where to go now, other than paying myself for a joint wall
which I am reluctant to do as he has already been paid once for it, and I believe I am too late now to take it up with HER (the drivers) insurers

Any thoughts on this please

Jack McHammocklashing

 

Have you tried contacting her insurance company and explaining the situation? It may be they coughed up for that wall and the money "ran out" but not until his side was done.

 

report the owner for insurance fraud, if he's had the money & not done the repairs, that might even come under imbezzelment. Never used that word before so probably spelt it wrong.

 

If you contact your own Insurer and give them the details they would normally chase all parties to recover the cost to them for the repair.

They may however reject the claim outright if you have not kept them informed from the date of the incident.

These days they like any getout they can use - being cynical, as I am.

 

From someone who spent 10 years doing the software for a large insurance firm (not directly involved with policy, but picked up a thing or two when doing the requirements analyses for software changes):

In the motor insurance industry, there is a pot put aside to cover payouts for victims of insured drivers. Most (if not all) motor insurers contribute to this pot. It means that if YOU are insured and you claim of YOUR insurance for damage caused by someone that isn't insured, you will still get a payout, albeit far less than you would have got if the culprit was insured.

There is no law on timescale for making a claim, however there are guidelines set by the courts (insurers often have monthly routine court cases to decide on policy changes). The guidelines say that a case is still strong for upto 3 years after the incident, but after that, you would have to convince the court of a legitimate reason why it took so long to claim. That means that as the incident was 21 months ago (ie well within the 3 years), and you've already said that you didn't claim because your neighbour had, time scale isn't going to affect your case.

Your insurer has the necessary legal capabilities to pursue whoever they think is appropriate. If you claim off your insurance, there is a good chance they'll pay out. They will then try to recover their costs off other parties. That's their problem, not yours.

Insurance aside, there may be other angles. Their may be 'deed of covenant' restrictions on one or both affected properties. At my house for example, I have to keep the front garden wall as a red brick wall, and it has to be kept no lower than some height, and no higher than 5ft (if I remember right). According to my solicitor when I bought the house, the chances of getting planning permission to change something that had a restriction in the deeds was exactly nil, so if the insurance route proves to be a dead end, it may be worth checking if the adjoining wall has to be their, and if it does, then the planning authority might be able to wave a big stick.

 

Well she must be insured, as my other neighbours got paid out no problem with car damage , two writeoffs replaced within three months and two damaged repaired and they did not pay from their own insurance
So yes she was insured

I did not make a claim, as the major damage was to the neighbours property, took out his front wall, the wrought iron gates and then into the joint wall
He was the FIRST to claim of everyone in the street

He is a buy to rent property owner, and it is all profit no repair
The RONES (gutters to you and I) have never been cleaned and are growing moss and trees out of them
What was once the towns prize winning garden, is now tall weeds, that my neighbour embarrasingly cuts when I offer him my petrol mower, or ask If I may enter the garden to preserve the other side of my fence

I was thinking of contacting the council, and asking if a property had to be kept to certain standards ?

The landlord has never contacted / spoken to me, only through the letting agency via the neighbour and non of it involves myself

I was thinking to have it rebuilt and send him the bill for half, only
A, Even though he has had the cash I do not think he would part with even half of it
B. Why should I, other than to improve the street back to what it was

What would be the cost of a new roof and respray of a new Range Rover ?

Jack McH

 

Thanks for the info
So I claim through my house insurance, advising them of her Motor insurance ?

Only problem I have with that, is I once had a hit and run on my car, and claimed, they deemed it an at fault claim ? and I had my premiums increased so up to now I have paid £3k more than the £350 I claimed
Therefore a bit wary of using MY home insurance

Thanks for the heads up though I will make enquiries

Jack McH

 

Best thing to do, speak to your insurance people. Tell them clearly right from the outset that at this point, you are not calling to make a claim. I can't speak for every insurance firm, but at the ones I worked for, they were often happy to find the most cost effective solution for you, even if that didn't mean registering a claim. While doing 'passive observations' as part of project analyses, I regularly heard claims adjusters talking to customers, advising them that in their specific circumstances, a claim would likely be successful but might not be the best option for them, so I know some claims adjusters are reasonable.

There would be no need to tell your insurer who her insurer is/was, as long as you can give them enough info to get started. If you know the car reg and the date of the incident, they'll find the rest of the details in seconds. If you can't be that precise, they may put one of their investigators on the case.

 

Mentioned about the insurance,claim,
Got home tonight and the wall has been taken down to 1 meter, and all rubble cleared
Neighbour said that he now wants it topped off with coping, not just left as it is
So we have a start and by that addmitance in my opinion

At LEAST it is tidy, and in the end I can put up a trellis to hide his bins

Thanks all for the information it all seems to be moving now
Amazing, when you mention insurance and fraud how things move
I have had this bomb site for over 21 months, just did not know what to do next

Regards Jack McH