Re: Wind Damage - Fallen Branch - Neighbour threatening legal action

Peter wrote: 
Palindr?me wrote:


We would obviously want to get a specialist to provide an opinion but
would take some comfort in knowing our legal postion now that we have
been threatened.


AFAIK the neighbour would have legal redress only if you knew or ought to
have known the tree was unsafe (see my further comment below).  If you
claim ignorance, then the neighbour would need to come up with other
evidence that you knew or ought to have known (eg a branch falling off
previously).

You now know that the tree remains a potential hazard so if you do nothing
and another branch falls, any resulting claim would be likely to succeed
and your insurance may not cover it.


You do have a duty to monitor your trees, 


This seems to be imposing an excessively high level of duty of care for a
'residential' situation.  AFAIK the only regular monitoring required
required by ordinary people in ordinary life would be any laid down by
legislation, SI's or possibly bylaws, chimney sweeping and motor vehicle
checks being the main ones that comes to mind.  The situation is of course
different in commercial, industrial, utility and transport settings where
common law could deem in some circumstances that regular checking is
required to meet a reasonable duty of care.

A final point - has this ever been covered in "The Archers"?  This was one
of the objectives of the program - education concerning rural matters.

You snipped the bit where I said that my sources were local authority web sites.

Several mentioned the requirement for regular inspections at 1-3 year periodicity. This appeared to be aimed at normal householders. Several also mentioned the need under common law to do so.
the forest of dean (http://www.fdean.gov.uk), forestry commission, et al.

Inspections

"Landowners are responsible for all trees within the boundary of their property. They have a duty to maintain the trees in a safe condition. To discharge this duty an owner must ensure the trees are inspected regularly for any signs that they are unsafe. The importance of regular, detailed inspections is to minimise the likelihood of damage or injury occurring if the tree or parts of it were to fall. If the risk is high, e.g. a large old tree next to a road, the importance is much greater. An owner without specialist knowledge would be expected to employ a suitably experienced and qualified arboriculturist/tree surgeon to inspect them every 1 to 3 years depending on the degree of risk."

They may all, of course, be wrong in law.

In this case, the OP knew that this was a very large and old tree next to adjacent property - it could be argued that he should have known that this presented a potential safety hazard and had it inspected periodically. It may be one that was clearly in need of attention. The neighbour could claim to have said as much in advance and may have done so - he is certainly saying so now.

AFAIK, insurers will not cover tree maintenance and loss adjustors will be very keen to point out that the damage was caused by lack of maintenance rather than storm damage - at least in part. A fractional payout and a typical excess may not be worth a lot and the matter could drag on for ages. Meanwhile, if the neighbour did complain to the council, they could be sending someone around today.


The OP didn't say that the neighbour was seeking compensation for the damage already caused. I would get the matter dealt with quickly before lawyers starting suggesting what he could claim for..or before another bit of the tree fell off.

--

Sue











.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Wind Damage - Fallen Branch - Neighbour threatening legal action
    ... The importance of regular, detailed ... > injury occurring if the tree or parts of it were to fall. ... > adjustors will be very keen to point out that the damage was ... publicise such concerns to customers and require regular tree maintenance ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: Regular Tree Grammar vs. Context-Free Grammar
    ... structures to word structures (strings), then we should be able to ... classical Chomsky hierarchy of grammars. ... between regular grammars and context-free grammars. ... tree (as one should be allowed, since we are defining that we wish to ...
    (comp.theory)
  • RE: can we use a regular expression to valid a stirng
    ... What do you mean by "composited of tree digital"? ... > Can we use RegularExpression to valid a string in run time? ... > Can I use this regular expression to determinate of a string is composited ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp)
  • Re: B tree, B+ tree and B* tree
    ... Stub wrote: ... > I understand what B tree is. ... However I don't have any material covering B+ ... for the good old days of regular old SPAM. ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Close lightning strike effects
    ... and all power went out. ... branches, and some pieces of bark, but no signs of major damage. ... the tree were broken, and two of them appeared to have blown outward. ... as I have found them in that house). ...
    (sci.electronics.design)