Liability for pet damage

[toxgobbler]

Yesterday my cat knocked over a small trailer in my shared driveway, it has scratched next doors car. I have checked with house insurance and its not covered, I have checked with my car insurance and because it was not attached to the car it's not covered.

Now in the interests of neighbourly relations, I'm willing to try and make good, but if they start getting unreasonable. What are my actual legal liabilities? I do have CCTV footage of the incident and we normally get on ok, just concerned if costs spiral as I would be covering put of pocket.

I have asked him to get a quote.

[Tyre Smoke]

Never mind the damage, how big is your cat ffs? It knocked over a trailer???

[Trophy Husband]

Ford Puma or Cougar?

[voram]

You can be liable if your cat causes "nuisance" to your neighbours.

https://www.inbrief.co.uk/animal-law/cats-fouling/

[Oceanrower]

Christ almighty! What kind of cat is it!!!!!!

Please, PLEASE, put the CCTV up. This I’ve got to see!

[CoreyDog]

I'm guessing you don't have any pet insurance then?

Our dog is insured for up to £5 Million for any damage or chaos he may cause.

I know that cats are treated differently in law to dogs so I'm not sure whether you'll be held personally liable for any damage the cat causes unlike you would be if was a dog. Worth looking up.

As has been said though, how big is this cat?!

[toxgobbler]

He is a good sized Tom, but to be fair it's only an Erde 122 trailer so quite light, he climbed up from behind and I think levered himself against the wall.

[BoRED S2upid]

CoreyDog said:

I'm guessing you don't have any pet insurance then?

Our dog is insured for up to £5 Million for any damage or chaos he may cause.

I know that cats are treated differently in law to dogs so I'm not sure whether you'll be held personally liable for any damage the cat causes unlike you would be if was a dog. Worth looking up.

As has been said though, how big is this cat?!

£5million! Christ what’s he going to do to cause that much damage?

[Richard-D]

BoRED S2upid said:

£5million! Christ what’s he going to do to cause that much damage?

Blind a child

[Heathwood]

Hmm, this is an interesting one. Still curious as to how an animal weighing a few kilos can tip a trailer. Is this issue, therefore, more the fact that the trailer wasn’t sufficiently safe/secure? What if it was a neighbours cat. Would you feel different about any liability?

[BoRED S2upid]

Richard-D said:

BoRED S2upid said:

£5million! Christ what’s he going to do to cause that much damage?

Blind a child

Fair point. I was thinking massive explosion.

[KungFuPanda]

Give the the neighbour the full name and address of your cat for service of the Claim Form if it comes to that.

In the meantime time, make sure all his assets are transferred to someone else.

[HocusPocus]

BoRED S2upid said:

Richard-D said:

BoRED S2upid said:

£5million! Christ what’s he going to do to cause that much damage?

Blind a child

Fair point. I was thinking massive explosion.

Blinding a child would be relatively cheap, but a RTA causing a high earning 30yo bread winner with young family to permanently require constant care should blow that limit. Add a little more for the lawyers and experts.

Of course if there are two in the unfortunate car then start emptying the piggy bank.

[Narcisus]

What do you class as unreasonable ? The neighbour gets a couple of quotes and you pay or are you saying if it’s going to cost over a certain amount then that’s unreasonable ?

[iphonedyou]

Hopefully your neighbour is reasonable.

Next door's wheelie bin blew into my car and scratched it. Cost about 400 quid but I didn't think to charge them for it.

One of those things.

[Vasco]

Heathwood said:

Hmm, this is an interesting one. Still curious as to how an animal weighing a few kilos can tip a trailer. Is this issue, therefore, more the fact that the trailer wasn’t sufficiently safe/secure? What if it was a neighbours cat. Would you feel different about any liability?

This ^^^^

Not your cat's fault if they have an unsecured lightweight trailer very close to their car.

[2Btoo]

Are you asking whether you are legally liable or whether you should pay to right the damage caused by your moggie? They are two different things.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

2Btoo said:

Are you asking whether you are legally liable or whether you should pay to right the damage caused by your moggie? They are two different things.

As he said really

[toxgobbler]

Narcisus said:

What do you class as unreasonable ? The neighbour gets a couple of quotes and you pay or are you saying if it’s going to cost over a certain amount then that’s unreasonable ?

I'm happy to cover the costs upto a limit, if they start playing silly with hire cars etc is my concern.

[Aretnap]

toxgobbler said:

I have checked with house insurance and its not covered.

In my experience most home insurance policies do cover your liabilities relating to domestic pets, often with exclusions for certain breeds of dog or for unusual "pets" which are actually non-domesticated wild animals.

Have they said whether they're not covering it because they don't think that you're liable, or because they don't cover liabilities relating to domestic cats? If it's the former, that probably gives you a pretty good answer to your question about your legal liabilities.