Landlords Responsibility??

[btrobin]

Today at the start of the strong winds a tile left the roof of the flat I rent and smashed the windscreen of the my car, parked below, making it un drivable. The windscreen replacement people cannot attend until next Tuesday, and to make matters worse I have a 6 am ferry booking at Dover tomorrow to France, which is now impossible. At best I could possibly scrub the crossing and make another on Sunday, giving me time to source another vehicle, or possibly it might be possible to amend the crossing, for an amendment fee. I presume my landlord has buildings insurance, possibly public liability as well. Is he responsible for reimbursing me, firstly for my insurance excess and any other costs that are attributed to the rearrangement if not total cancellation, of my trip to France.

[bobbinwales]

Would you need to show that he was negligent in not maintaining the roof to claim from him? Anyway if you put in a car claim your car insurer will decide whether to claim from the landlord(the probably won't- not worth the trouble). And if you have holiday insurance claim on that and see if they will want to claim on your landlords liability insurance

[Buenchico]

According to The Grauniad:
"If tiles have come off your roof and damaged a nearby property or car, you are liable. In most cases, the legal liability part of your buildings insurance policy should meet claims for this."
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/11/storm-damage-insurance-pay-policyholders-homes-weather

However I doubt that you could successfully make a claim for consequential losses.

[btrobin]

The question therefore arises that the excess on any policy is then left for me to stump up for, currently £75 on the screen, and I have only seen the damage on a photo sent by a neighbour to my mobile, big hole in screen with rain issing in. God knows what that water ingress will damage. My trip was to visit my parents, whom I have not seen for 2 years due to everytime I re-booked it, travel was stopped due to covid, this will be the fourth time, so I don't think any holiday insurance will be in place. I just booked the crossing and would drive down to their place.

[bobbinwales]

Thanks Buenchico. So how should bt robin go about this... approach the landlord by phone or by letter (or leave it to his car insurer to claim it back from landlord?)

[btrobin]

It seems the damage is not just the screen, bodywork on roof passenger door and back door all affected, think the best is to let the insurers battle it out.

[bobbinwales]

Yes

[Maydup]

Contact your landlord and your car insurers and they will fight out who pays for what. In the meantime does your car insurance include a courtesy car if yours is off the road? If so check whether you can take it abroad before you rebook the trip to see your parents, if not then sadly you will be postponing again.

I think due to the weather you will probably be able to rearrange the ferry booking for a new date.