Legal help needed please!

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Mildredthedog

Original Poster:

4 posts

56 months

Monday 17th February 2020
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Hi there,
One day last September, my neighbour set fire to a pile of rubbish at the bottom of his garden. The fire spread, got out of control, and spread into my garden causing a huge amount of damage.
My own insurance doesn’t cover “outside space” therefore won’t get involved.
I made a liability claim direct with my neighbours insurance company, but they have now written to me saying they will no longer be involved in the claim and I should pursue the claim directly with my neighbour.
I’ve asked my neighbour to find out why the won’t get involved and they tell me it’s because they didn’t do anything wrong as a spark flew from the fire spreading it and therefore they were not negligent and it was just one of those things!
This seems so unfair as the costs for the garden damage are over £8000 with lost tools as well.
Any legal people out there know where I can go next. It seems very wrong that I’m left with a huge bill to put things right when I didn’t do anything?
Any help would be gratefully received 😊

Mildredthedog

Original Poster:

4 posts

56 months

Monday 17th February 2020
quotequote all
No it doesn’t.
It’s a very large garden and the fire took out 25 mature trees, hence the large quotes :-(

Mildredthedog

Original Poster:

4 posts

56 months

Monday 17th February 2020
quotequote all
roadsmash said:
Something doesn’t seem right here.

Most buildings insurance policies cover some element of the garden... who are you insured with?
trust me if I could have gone through my own insurance and let them claim from neighbours I would. My insurance is with now4cover and apparently it seems I did not click for it to include my garden! I didn’t notice this at the time and to be honest I’m not sure I would have added it on as an extra anyway.

Mildredthedog

Original Poster:

4 posts

56 months

Tuesday 18th February 2020
quotequote all
Thanks for that everyone.
The reason for the fire was to clear up a lot of household waste (as ordered from the council) and instead of getting a skip they decided to burn it. Very stupid idea in September after a dry summer.
My neighbour called around yesterday and said as the insurance company said they weren't to blame, they really believe I’m being unreasonable.
I showed them two quotations for rectifying the damage and they informed me that they could maybe pay a little towards the repairs, they don’t have any money so it won’t be much.
I’m seeing a solicitor next Tuesday to see how I move forward on this.
Once again, thanks