The boy next door’s football has smashed our greenhouse. His parents have not offered to pay for the repairs. What are our rights?
W. W., via email.
Dean Dunham replies: This will always be a tricky situation as clearly you are entitled to be reimbursed for any damage to your property caused by your neighbour or their children, but you never want the matter to escalate into a full-on neighbour dispute as this can be more trouble than it’s worth.
By way of example, not only can it be very uncomfortable when you fall out with neighbours, the situation can also affect the future saleability of your house and, therefore, potentially devalue it.
This is because, when you sell a house, the law requires you to provide potential buyers with certain key information via what is known as a ‘seller’s property information form’.
As part of this, you are required to disclose any neighbour disputes. So with this in mind, your next steps are important.
Own goal? Can a reader force their neighbour to pay to repair the damage after the son kicked a football into their greenhouse smashing some of the glass
In the first instance you should take photos of the damage and collate any evidence that proves that it was indeed your neighbour’s child who caused the damage – CCTV footage would naturally be the best evidence, or perhaps the football if it’s still in situ in your greenhouse.
You should then ascertain how much the damage will cost to repair.
Armed with this information, politely approach your neighbour and ask them to cover the cost of the repair.
Many clients tell me that when they politely make an approach in this way, with the relevant evidence, it gets the desired result.
If your neighbours do not budge you will have two choices. You could either take them to the small claims court and claim compensation for the damage and inconvenience, or review your home insurance policy to see if it covers accidental damage caused by third parties.
I would not advocate going down the court route with this, so the insurance claim will be the best bet.
Father died a day after agreeing home extension deal
My father obtained and agreed a quote for an extension at his home
However, literally the day after agreeing the quote he died, so he paid no monies over and no works commenced.
The builder now says he has a binding contract and wants to carry on and build the extension. Can he force this?
A. Green, Swansea.
Dean Dunham replies: It will be for the executor of your father’s estate to review the contract, or the circumstances if there is no written contract, and determine if a binding enforceable arrangement exists.
If the contract is deemed enforceable, the estate will likely be responsible for fulfilling the obligations or compensating the builder – although, from the limited information you have given me, this seems unlikely.
For an enforceable contract to be formed under English law, three key elements must exist. First, there must have been an offer from the builder to carry out works – clearly there was here.
Secondly, your father must have accepted the offer – and it sounds like he did. And, finally, there must be consideration – this means your father must have given the builder something in consideration of the proposed works. Obviously this would ordinarily be a monetary deposit or payment.
From the information you’ve given me it appears that this did not happen, and if this is the case, there generally will not be an enforceable contract.
There are two exceptions to this rule. In some cases, a promise may be enforceable without consideration if one party has relied on the promise to their detriment, and it would be unjust not to enforce the promise.
And then there is a deed, a special type of contract that does not require consideration to be binding.
It must be in writing, signed, witnessed and delivered to be enforceable, and I do not believe either of these exceptions apply here.
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