Roof tile damaged my car

efc67

So anyway on Valentine day a slate came of a shop and landed on the roof of my car which was parked outside, done about €1400 damage to car...(i had onlt got it 2 weeks earlier :-(..), so owner of shop came out and accepted liability straight away and said he would get his insurance to deal with. Today we got a phonecall saying that the insurance wont be paying as it was a act of god, deep down i feared this, but that Friday was no where near as bad as the previous days, anyway after doing a bit of digging, i have read if a roof wasn't properly maintained i could have a case...as i know nothing about roofing i took a picture straight after it happened, and was wondering if you think its properly maintained in your opinion...its the roof on the left

Doop

efc67 wrote: »

So anyway on Valentine day a slate came of a shop and landed on the roof of my car which was parked outside, done about €1400 damage to car...(i had onlt got it 2 weeks earlier :-(..), so owner of shop came out and accepted liability straight away and said he would get his insurance to deal with. Today we got a phonecall saying that the insurance wont be paying as it was a act of god, deep down i feared this, but that Friday was no where near as bad as the previous days, anyway after doing a bit of digging, i have read if a roof wasn't properly maintained i could have a case...as i know nothing about roofing i took a picture straight after it happened, and was wondering if you think its properly maintained in your opinion...its the roof on the left

You might get better answers in the construction fourm, I would say no, if it wasnt stormy, then a properly maintained roof would not be losing tiles. If that were the case imagine the chaos of regularly falling tiles onto people. below

efc67

Doop wrote: »

You might get better answers in the construction fourm, I would say no, if it wasnt stormy, then a properly maintained roof would not be losing tiles. If that were the case imagine the chaos of regularly falling tiles onto people. below

Hi...yeah i didn't think of posting it in construction...cheers, i wonder if one of the mods would be able to move it for me.....thanks in advance

Wheelnut

Those look like slates, not tiles and it looks like the roof on the right has been re-slated at some time. That does not mean that the roof on the left is not properly maintained.

I think you will have a hard time proving that the roof on the left has not been properly maintained. Unless a dangerous structure notice has been served by the local authority you will have to get a survey by an engineer or architect. To do such a survey properly the eng or arc would need access to the roof and the owner is unlikely to allow that, so they could only form an opinion by looking from the ground.

Why are you going about it this way if you have insurance? You would need to engage an engineer and solicitor at least and you might not win. If you claim from your insurance they will pay, and if there is a worthwhile case against the building owner they will go after him to recover the money and your NCB will not be effected. After all, that's what you're paying the insurance company for.

efc67

Wheelnut wrote: »

Those look like slates, not tiles and it looks like the roof on the right has been re-slated at some time. That does not mean that the roof on the left is not properly maintained.

I think you will have a hard time proving that the roof on the left has not been properly maintained. Unless a dangerous structure notice has been served by the local authority you will have to get a survey by an engineer or architect. To do such a survey properly the eng or arc would need access to the roof and the owner is unlikely to allow that, so they could only form an opinion by looking from the ground.

Why are you going about it this way if you have insurance? You would need to engage an engineer and solicitor at least and you might not win. If you claim from your insurance they will pay, and if there is a worthwhile case against the building owner they will go after him to recover the money and your NCB will not be effected. After all, that's what you're paying the insurance company for.

Hi thanks for the reply, i do have insurance and thats probably the way that we will end up going about it, but i am a innocent third party, i will still have to pay the excess, also i only bought the car for €20,000 2 weeks earlier, i just wonder if that slate would've hit and injured someone what would be the outcome then?

Bepolite

efc67 wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply, i do have insurance and thats probably the way that we will end up going about it, but i am a innocent third party, i will still have to pay the excess, also i only bought the car for €20,000 2 weeks earlier, i just wonder if that slate would've hit and injured someone what would be the outcome then?

If there is no negligence involved, most likely the same however it's more likely to go further and be looked upon with more sympathy.