Tree has Fallen on my Porsche while visiting family's apt

Tree has Fallen on my Porsche while visiting family's apt

Author
Discussion

Stone02

Original Poster:

47 posts

23 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Hi all,

My mother lives in a Manor House / Apartment Block with around 20 total apartments. This includes visitors parking, while parked in the visitor parking with 2 other cars, a tree has fallen onto my car, fortunately only scratching the bonnet and a few marks... although causing £5000+ worth of damage to my car. From what I saw it also wrote off a 2020 Range Rover and damaged a BMW quite badly. I was the lucky one.

My excess for insurance is £5000 and I'm a young driver so don't want to claim.

The tree was rotting, I've got pictures of it all.

Currently, they're looking into the policy to see if I'm covered under the home insurance, if not... Does anyone have legal advice?

  • It wasn't windy last night, just a massive rotten branch fell **
Was this just 'an act of god/nature' or do I have a claim ready for this.

swisstoni

16,844 posts

278 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
They should have some kind of public liability insurance as part of their house insurance.

Evanivitch

19,802 posts

121 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Stone02 said:
Hi all,

My mother lives in a Manor House / Apartment Block with around 20 total apartments. This includes visitors parking, while parked in the visitor parking with 2 other cars, a tree has fallen onto my car, fortunately only scratching the bonnet and a few marks... although causing £5000+ worth of damage to my car. From what I saw it also wrote off a 2020 Range Rover and damaged a BMW quite badly. I was the lucky one.

My excess for insurance is £5000 and I'm a young driver so don't want to claim.

The tree was rotting, I've got pictures of it all.

Currently, they're looking into the policy to see if I'm covered under the home insurance, if not... Does anyone have legal advice?

  • It wasn't windy last night, just a massive rotten branch fell **
Was this just 'an act of god/nature' or do I have a claim ready for this.
The company managing the property will have public liability insurance. It's only required to pay out of they've been negligent. They would need to provide some evidence that the tree had been maintained or surveyed in a recent period of time to conclude they'd taken reasonable steps to consider the risk.

You would provide evidence of the calm weather conditions and potentially signs that the tree was clearly in ill-health.

S17Thumper

4,225 posts

185 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Stone02 said:
Hi all,

My mother lives in a Manor House / Apartment Block with around 20 total apartments. This includes visitors parking, while parked in the visitor parking with 2 other cars, a tree has fallen onto my car, fortunately only scratching the bonnet and a few marks... although causing £5000+ worth of damage to my car. From what I saw it also wrote off a 2020 Range Rover and damaged a BMW quite badly. I was the lucky one.

My excess for insurance is £5000 and I'm a young driver so don't want to claim.

The tree was rotting, I've got pictures of it all.

Currently, they're looking into the policy to see if I'm covered under the home insurance, if not... Does anyone have legal advice?

  • It wasn't windy last night, just a massive rotten branch fell **
Was this just 'an act of god/nature' or do I have a claim ready for this.
I’ve heard of insuring for disaster rather than inconvenience but a five grand excess?! eek

Muzzer79

9,805 posts

186 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Is there a sign up at the car park that says you park there at your own risk?

Most car parks have this.....

ChocolateFrog

24,847 posts

172 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
£5000 excess?

fking hell laugh

How much does that reduce your premiums by?

Road2Ruin

5,164 posts

215 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
swisstoni said:
They should have some kind of public liability insurance as part of their house insurance.
Would still need to prove negligence to claim.

Mr E

21,581 posts

258 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Who was negligent?

If you can show that the people responsible for the tree knew it was rotten and likely to fall, and had not taken any action to resolve this you probably have a claim on the 3rd party.

Otherwise, you probably don’t and it’s on you. Your decision to fund the repairs yourself or claim on your insurance policy probably needs some maths.

sbk1972

850 posts

75 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Feel for the OP. Terrible situation and I hope he gets it sorted.

However, like others above, £5000 excess. What was the original insurance quote before agreeing £5K ? How much did a £5K excess save you ?

What porches and how old are you ?

EdmondDantes

304 posts

140 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Just pay to get it fixed, might work out cheaper if your a young driver and don’t want a hike in your insurance renewal.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Stone02 said:
Hi all,

scratching the bonnet and a few marks... although causing £5000+ worth of damage to my car.
That's a very high quote for some paint. 5 grand would buy a new bonnet, painted, from Porsche.

ajap1979

7,898 posts

186 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
sbk1972 said:
Feel for the OP. Terrible situation and I hope he gets it sorted.

However, like others above, £5000 excess. What was the original insurance quote before agreeing £5K ? How much did a £5K excess save you ?

What porches and how old are you ?
He’s 19. 718 Cayman S I think.

ingenieur

3,991 posts

180 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
I would guess if there's going to be three drivers pursuing claims it is going to be a lot of agro to try and avoid paying out.

Perhaps you could team up with the other two owners and make sure you're putting the pressure on jointly in the event that they start messing about.

carinaman

21,211 posts

171 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Muzzer79 said:
Is there a sign up at the car park that says you park there at your own risk?

Most car parks have this.....
How much sway do those signs have in law?

swamp

991 posts

188 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
I imagine the owners of the (written off) Range Rover and BMW will be making claim against the home insurers, and you should probably do the same.

I imagine your own (car) insurer will get to hear about it though, which might push up your premium.


ETA:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/11/stor...

Cars hit by falling trees and roof tiles are covered on the same terms as damage to homes – and a comprehensive policy should payout. If your car was damaged by tiles from a neighbour's roof, you can recover the loss from their insurer


ingenieur

3,991 posts

180 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
carinaman said:
Muzzer79 said:
Is there a sign up at the car park that says you park there at your own risk?

Most car parks have this.....
How much sway do those signs have in law?
I would say roughly about zero.

Compare it with the signs in pay and display carparks which are everywhere in big brightly coloured writing. They won't have anything like that at this private estate and you can be sure the reason they're so numerous and bright at the pay and display is for legal reasons.

Miserablegit

4,013 posts

108 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
It won’t cost anything to fix as it didn’t happen.
OP has started a few posts which seemed to be a flight of fancy. Have school holidays started again?

PistonTim

499 posts

138 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
carinaman said:
Muzzer79 said:
Is there a sign up at the car park that says you park there at your own risk?

Most car parks have this.....
How much sway do those signs have in law?
Absolutely none, the same as 'wet floor' for example, it doesnt reduce the liability if something happens it just reduces the likelihood of a claim in the first place by making people aware and they might tread more carefully or park elsewhere.

ingenieur

3,991 posts

180 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Miserablegit said:
It won’t cost anything to fix as it didn’t happen.
OP has started a few posts which seemed to be a flight of fancy. Have school holidays started again?
I think sometimes people from companies and organisations use this forum for research. Not looked into this one in particular but they stand out a mile away.

Austin_Metro

1,196 posts

47 months

Friday 24th June 2022
quotequote all
Miserablegit said:
It won’t cost anything to fix as it didn’t happen.
OP has started a few posts which seemed to be a flight of fancy. Have school holidays started again?
I’m sure he’ll provide photos.