Guttering dispute with next door neighbour

[station1212]

I replaced my old cast iron guttering in February 2015 on my semi detached house.

The guy next told me we had damaged his guttering while replacing ours, so I rang an independent builder to come up and give his opinion.

He stated that the guys guttering was the original guttering from when the houses were built and he had never seen guttering in such a bad state and nothing we had done had affected his guttering.

In Late July 2015 a company turned up and replaced next doors guttering so I assumed he had accepted the builders opinion.

So I was amazed to get a letter from his insurers in late aug 2015 saying they believed we had damaged his guttering and asking for payment of £5000 their outlay in replacing next doors
guttering !!!!

I have many photos of his guttering to fight this but wanted to ask if anyone can advise if an insurance company can do this and not contact me beforehand to give me chance to resolve this before they removed any proof of the state of his guttering and then trying to lump me with a five grand bill...this is going to court later this year so any advice would be appreciated

 

[big-all]

get as much information as possible pictures statement emails bills opinions
but at worst you can only be responcible for perhaps to the first bracked
i assume they have replaced the whole roof so not your problem

assuming your home insurance has legal cover get them to deal with it

 

[station1212]

Hi Big all
Thanks for your reply.
My stepson lives in the property and he did the guttering and facsias. He works for a national company and does this work everyday so i know its been done properly, he did this work over two weekends and not in his works time. But next doors insurance have said either i give them the name of the workmen that did the guttering so they can claim off them directly or if i wont give them the name of the workmen they will chase me for the £5000 bill as i instructed them.
The crux of this matter is that next doors guttering was knackered ( i have many pics to prove this) and im not prepared to pay £5000 for next doors knackered 80 year old guttering.I am further incensed that next doors insurance company have replaced his guttering and not contacted me before ripping it all down and putting him brand new guttering up !!!!!

 

[big-all]

i am no expert but would ask for proof off damage caused
i would ask why they had replaced all the gutter rather than just the section they claim was damaged
i would also ask why they paid out for a problem caused through lack off maintainance that wont be covered by insurance

 

[station1212]

Cheers Big all
That gives me new questions to fire at them

 

[Gerrydelasel]

So all your photos were taken in the time between your guttering going up, and his guttering going up, yes?

 

[big-all]

i would also ask why 5K is that the going rate for the job ??

 

[station1212]

They have sent me a surveyors report that has more holes in it than next doors old guttering ☺
We are currently taking expert advice as to how best to go about proving the insurers surveyors report to be false , untrue and misleading

 

[station1212]

I've asked that already and the reply was ...the company that did the work had to hire scaffolding to go on three sides of his property and go over his conservatory and they listed that at £3200 for the scaffolding for a minimum 4 week hire..they say that is their standard rate for their 4 week minimum hire charge !!!!

 

[chappers]

Well therein lies part of your argument, why the hell are they trying to charge you for repairing guttering on the other elevations of his house. use your independent builder and your step son as witnesses and tell them you will see them in court.
This doesn't sound like the way most insurers work, they either find a way out of paying out on a claim, or would want to be pretty sure of their case if passing the cost of the claim onto a third party, to not contact you and run the risk that you will challenge them in court would be negligent to their underwriters.

The alleged damage caused must have been very extensive for them to consider that replacing the whole guttering was more cost effective than effecting a repair.
Even if they had to replace the whole elevation which being very generous wouldn't come anywhere near that, I assume you are in a semi. then your average semi needs 3-4 lengths of cast iron guttering plus a couple of fittings and brackets so being very generous £300 max, if the scaffold was complicated over the conservatory it may run to £1000 for an insurance job and say 2 men a days labour again as its an insurance job so lets say £400. That doesn't even get close.
I suspect what happened is that the surveyor had a look and then reported back that the guttering was beyond repair and so would need to be completely replaced. however that's not your issue, your neighbour can't claim for betterment.
I would love to see the surveyors report and more specifically how it relates to the alleged damage.
Personally I would spend a free half hour with a solicitor, to find out where you stand. write them a strongly worded letter, laying out your grievances and tell them to take you to court if they think they have a case.

 

[honda]

From what you say it's obvious that your neighbor has taken advantage of the fact that you have had your gutters replaced and seen a way of getting his done for nothing. Personally I would fight him and his insurance company all the way. Good luck.

 

[station1212]

Hi Chappers

I would love to send you a copy of the surveyors report for you to look at and give me your thoughts. Not sure how i do that on here though ??
The insurance company did not replace his guttering with cast but plastic.
The surveyor works for the building company that carried out the work on next doors guttering.....
Ive checked on the Royal institute of charted surveyors website and he is not registered with them so just a guy the building company sent along i guess ...........

 

[Nige F]

I would get on to the Judge Rinder programme on ITV - you'll get a valid judgement and probably save a fortune in legal costs.

 

[Mikefromlondon]

Clearly the insurance company and your next door neighbour is taking a pi55, I would bluntly refused to pay a penny and challenge them to prove that you or your builder caused any damage, as you did not step on their soil, or touch their gutters, just reply to the menacing letter that you have no intention of paying anything towards their claim as you had not even touched their gutter. They are mistaken and are taking you for a mug.

And for £5000, I think you can almost have a new roof and gutters on a mid terrace house in London! That is a joke!

 

[station1212]

Cheers Mike

I'm so angry about how this has unfolded

By his insurance company replacing his guttering with no warning or contact beforehand I feel like I've been boxed into a corner...
It's almost like they are saying pay us £5000 or we will take this to court where I could face a legal bill from hell if I lose....don't think I would lose but you can't be sure of anything in a court of law...oj Simpson and Oscar pistorious come to mind....