Hello,

My brother-in-law received a lengthy report, from assesors acting for insurers, staing that his trees in the back garden had caused subsidence to his neighbour extention. A complete nonsense as the trees are tiny. My brother in law commisioned his own report which stated that the complaint was utter rubbish - mentioning poor quality build of the extension = basically the claim was frivillous and vexatious.

The assesors have now written back stating:

I have been advised that, as the level of damage occurring to our insured property is slight, and, taking into account the lack of evidence to support the OCA Report recommendations, at this present time your vegetation removal is no longer required.

However, you are placed On Notice of future risk. This means that although your vegetation is no longer requested for removal it has been implicated and therefore must be considered as a future risk. Whilst you have advised you will not be mitigating at this present time you may give consideration to taking some action in the future to prevent any further possible damage occurring to our insured property by your vegetation.

My file on this matter is now closed and I thank you for your time in dealing.

Tree Mitigation Specialist

Oriel Services Limited

Oakleigh House, 14-16 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3DQ, GB

My brother-in-law clearly doesn't want the threat hanging over him, having to mention this to his own future insurers, but is not sure how he should respond to counter this - any ideas please? Perhaps respond that his neighbours are also on notice of their vexatious complaint, or something.. basically put up or shut up.

Regards

John

In other words they knew from the start that the trees were not the problem and tried to sc@m you.

Write back to them saying that potentially their gas cooker could explode.

this has now been implicated and therefore must be considered as a future risk.

Use their same words to take them for a ride.

You don't have to do anything more than answer insurance questions truly.

If they ask specifically about trees you tell them.

The standard question is: "is there any tree taller than 5 metre within 10 metres of the property?" or something similar.

The answer is yes or no.

Hi. As this is more of an insurance question than a rural one, I've moved your thread to the insurance forum for further comment.

HB

Which came first - trees or extension & what sort of trees are they?

I would have thought some kind of survey would have been required prior to the extension being built (if it was built after the trees had grown).

The response from the Insurers sounds as though they are just trying to 'save face' because you decided to commission your own report which kind of blew theirs out of the water.

Thanks for everyones feedback, all relevant and all very helpful

Some trees were there before, some afterwards. They are small, not sure of the type, but they have had no impact on the wall seperating the properties so the claim was really unfounded.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks Honeybee

Thanks King12345, the neighbours have huge conifers in their front garden that have appeared to have caused some cracking to their own front wall - I think I'll put them on notice of that

The third party Insurers or the company acting for them, have every right to give notice about risk presented by trees in a garden.

Your B-I-L's only responsibility is to take reasonable precautions, by maintaining his garden. He has to be careful, as say three years down the line, the neighbours Insurers start litigation for further subsidence damage and he gets his Home Insurers involved, as he will have liability cover under his Home policy. The Home Insurers may say that they were not made aware of the previous correspondence, so they won't help, because they had no chance to review the situation.

I would suggest your BIL sends copies of all correspondence including the reports and photos of the garden to his current Home Insurers. If the neighbour has trees which present a relevant issue, perhaps send pictures of those as well.

Making the current Home Insurers aware of this, may prove very useful, for the reason given. Also if your BIL makes them aware, then if a future Insurers asks him whether he notified his Insurers and if so, what did they do, then he can answer this.

The third party Insurers or the company acting for them, have every right to give notice about risk presented by trees in a garden.

 

Your B-I-L's only responsibility is to take reasonable precautions, by maintaining his garden. He has to be careful, as say three years down the line, the neighbours Insurers start litigation for further subsidence damage and he gets his Home Insurers involved, as he will have liability cover under his Home policy. The Home Insurers may say that they were not made aware of the previous correspondence, so they won't help, because they had no chance to review the situation.

 

I would suggest your BIL sends copies of all correspondence including the reports and photos of the garden to his current Home Insurers. If the neighbour has trees which present a relevant issue, perhaps send pictures of those as well.

 

Making the current Home Insurers aware of this, may prove very useful, for the reason given. Also if your BIL makes them aware, then if a future Insurers asks him whether he notified his Insurers and if so, what did they do, then he can answer this.

That's perfect, thanks. The small tress in my brother-in-laws garden won't get any bigger. However, I have responded with your suggested reply about their much larger conifers in their clients front garden that appear to have caused some damage to their clients own property - putting them on notice. Thanks again.

BTW if the house goes on sale the "Notice of future risk" will need to be declared to any potential buyer and this may affect the value of the property. I would tell the insurers that before they put any such notice I would want them to carry out a full investigation at their expense. I am not sure but perhaps they could be taken them to court to remove the Notice if they keep the Notice but do not do a survey?

BTW if the house goes on sale the "Notice of future risk" will need to be declared to any potential buyer and this may affect the value of the property. I would tell the insurers that before they put any such notice I would want them to carry out a full investigation at their expense. I am not sure but perhaps they could be taken them to court to remove the Notice if they keep the Notice but do not do a survey?

Excellent advise, that I shall follow, thanks again.

Best regards

John

also let them know that their statements are reckless, frivolous and vexatious and copy your letters to all parties. This will then make anyone look carefully at any claim in the future.

Send a copy of your report and this letter to the professional body that oversees the assessors and make a compl;ain about the same. Again that wil make it harder for them to dig this up later unless they can show that it was investigated and their bloke suddenly proved to have a valid point ( not just his word). Find out the species of the trees and do a search on the local drift geology to see what the normal soil and subsoil types are. Council or library should have some suitable scale maps.

This sort of garbage is normal for insurers looking to play pass the buck

also let them know that their statements are reckless, frivolous and vexatious and copy your letters to all parties. This will then make anyone look carefully at any claim in the future.

Send a copy of your report and this letter to the professional body that oversees the assessors and make a compl;ain about the same. Again that wil make it harder for them to dig this up later unless they can show that it was investigated and their bloke suddenly proved to have a valid point ( not just his word). Find out the species of the trees and do a search on the local drift geology to see what the normal soil and subsoil types are. Council or library should have some suitable scale maps.

 

This sort of garbage is normal for insurers looking to play pass the buck

That's great, thanks very much ericsbrother, really useful.