My friend drove into my neighbour's wall - the neighbour has now inflated the claim, what do we do? | Ask Honest John

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My friend drove into my neighbour's wall - the neighbour has now inflated the claim, what do we do?

One of my friends has hit the boundary wall of our neighbour, which has caused damage to a section of the two-foot wall. My friend is willing to pay for the repair, but the neighbour is demanding he rebuild the entire wall. We have requested a few builders for quotes to fix it and neither of them have reported any damage to the integrity of the remaining wall. We also found that there is no proper foundation under the wall when it was first built. What are our options? We really don't want to go through the insurance, but he's threatening to go through the car insurance if we don't agree to his demand. Will he be able to make a claim on the car insurance without the policy holder's approval?

Asked on 3 November 2017 by Raghu

Answered by Honest John

Tell the neighbour that if he is not happy with your offers, to take the matter to Small Claims where you will submit your "reasonable" offers together with the quotations that you will bear the cost of and he can make his case. He'll probably then agree to your offers. He could go through the insurance, but he would have to do the same thing to your insurers as to what has already been advised i.e. getting a quote for repairs. You can always "buy" the claim off your insurer if it's a low amount, so as to not affect your insurance. If he does do this, contact your insurer and advise that you believe the neighbour is inflating the claim.

Tags: insurance claims legal and consumer advice insurance reducing insurance premiums small claims court repair costs

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