# Neighbour trying to claim from my builder



## pkeane (23 Mar 2009)

Hi,

wanted to throw the following scenario out to see what my options are:

I have builders in at the moment putting up a garden wall. My neighbour in the rented house next door alleges that they scraped his car with a stone from their cement mixer. They deny this allegation and are saying that they guy is basically trying to pull a fast one.

I wasn't in at the time, but as an act of good faith I offered to get a scratch repair guy to come and touch up the door. 

My neighbour is now saying that he wants his whole car door re-sprayed (even though there are numerous other scratches  on the dorr which are nothing to do with this incident).

My questions are:
1. If the builder refuses to give his details to the guy, am I liable given that he is working for me?

2. Would such a claim be covered by my household insurance?

Any thoughts/advice would be gratefully accepted.


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## Ravima (23 Mar 2009)

claim NOT covered under your house insurance unless you have a legal liability and from what you post, you do not appear to be liable.

This is a matter between builder and car owner - why on earth did you get involved at all? 

If builder does not give his details to neighbour, what is to stop you doing so?


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## mathepac (23 Mar 2009)

Ravima said:


> ... This is a matter between builder and car owner - why on earth did you get involved at all? ...


I agree 100%. If the neighbour feels s/he has a claim against the builder, let them both get on with it. BTW, this is a good example of why builders  carry public liability insurance (amongst others).


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## Willowchase (23 Mar 2009)

Just a few thoughts.

1   The neighbour needs to be able to substantiate his claim.

2   If he can the OP could be held liable as he/she is the Principal i.e. employing the builder to do work on his/her behalf.

3   Hopefully she checked that the builder has appropriate public liability insurance which provides indemnity to principal.

4   If builder has no insurance the chances are that OP's home insurer will not accept the claim on the basis that a building contractor working on the premises falls outside the scope of the cover. (You did not advise the nature of the work being done by the builder.)


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## DirectDevil (29 Mar 2009)

A few thoughts ;

1. Generally, a principal is vicariously liable for the negligence of his agent.

2. The OP is the principal. The builder is the agent.

3. A principal is not usually vicariously liable for the negligence of an independent contractor. A builder is usually considered to be an independent contractor. (There are exceptions to this exception but they would not seem to apply here.)

4. The negligence, if any, seems to be that of the builder. Therefore, the builder is liable if he has been negligent. There seems to be no basis on which either independent or vicarious liability can be visited on the OP.

5. If the builder does not want to give his insurance details to the neighbour that is not the OP's worry. The OP would be better to refer the neighbour back to the builder and keep out of it at this stage. Let the neighbour take it on from here.

6. OP should have notified this claim to his household insurers. Irrespective of the question of liability the OP will need the backing of his insurers to defend any claim from the neighbour.

7. OP needs to be sure to notify the correct insurers if the buildings and contents are with different companies. If they are with separate companies notify both and let them sort it out between them.

8. OP may be in breach of policy conditions by making the "offer" to have the initial repair done. I know that OP was probably just trying to do the decent thing but that gets very little respect these days from some people who will just try and exploit a situation - especially if they are chancers !

9.That said I agree with point 4 made by Willowchase but would not take it as correct yet until the insurers say what their attitude is.

10. A re-spray of the entire car door for one little dent is spurious and would give the neighbour considerable betterment ! This sounds unreasonable and smells like a try-on. A few discrete photographs of the damaged door and the car might be of help if this develops in to a formal claim.


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## mercman (29 Mar 2009)

If there are numerous other scratches to the door, how does the car owner know which scratch is relevant to this case. Has the car owner been reimbursed for the other scratches ? They probably will not tell you but at least ask. This might have been tried on already in the other cases and it just might be way of making from false and spurious claims. Anyway how big is the scratch ?? 

On a separate note if you have driven in the west in the past 3-5 years, you would have inevitably got a scratch from the road works and the chance of having a claim paid would be very slim. If this is a small scratch tell the renter next door to get a life.


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## Willowchase (29 Mar 2009)

While I agree to some extent with DirectDevil I am just wondering about the status of the builder in this instance. The fact that the OP offered to settle the claim combined with the fact that the builder may not be prepared to offer details of his insurance, if any, makes me wonder at the exact legal relationship between him and the OP.

However it really does appear to be a trivial matter overall which should be capable of settlement for €200/€300. I suppose, in fairness to the neighbour, (assuming that the car is relatively new and this is the only damage to the door) if the car has a metallic finish I understand that touching up the damaged area does not provide a satisfactory finish. If there is other damage to the door he should be told where to go.

Has the neighbour been able to prove that the damage was caused, negligently or otherwise by the builder?

While a householders policy provides liability arising as a property owner (in the case of buildings) or as a householder (in the case of a contents) it is not intended to cover building work but basic property repairs only.  This is why it is important to ensure that any contractor you employ has the appropriate covers in place and that you as principal are indemnified.


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## extopia (30 Mar 2009)

It's interesting that the OP mentioned that the neighbour is in a rented house. AFAIK that does not impinge on the neighbour's rights so let's get that out of the way as an irrelevant detail.

It seems to me that it should be a case of the neighbour giving the builder's details to his own insurance company.


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## DirectDevil (1 Apr 2009)

..


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## DirectDevil (1 Apr 2009)

extopia said:


> . It seems to me that it should be a case of the neighbour giving the builder's details to his own insurance company.


 
Why ? There is no legal obligation to do so.


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## noname (10 Apr 2009)

DirectDevil said:


> Why ? There is no legal obligation to do so.



I would imagine it would be to ask his own insurance company to sort it out for him.


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## donee (11 Apr 2009)

my GOD reading the above posts and the obvious expertise of both willowchase and directdevil, for something so small, i wonder to myself how on earth are any kind of major claims sorted out . id certainly want one of you in my corner cheers donee


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## Caveat (11 Apr 2009)

May not apply in the OP's case but IME opportunistic or unscrupulous serial (if indeed thay are) claimers are often pulling one or two scams themselves.

Are they up to anything they shouldn't be, nixer or social welfare wise for example?

They might suddenly drop any claims if they thought someone was 'on to them'.


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