The Law Offices of A. L. Williams and Associates, LLC.
Fire Damage Liability
Your policy should cover the insured in any case of liability due to the negligence that may cause fires to spread to another person’s property. The tenants’ coverage should include the property and (garages) if it is applicable. This is in addition to the coverage provided to the insured policyholder in the care, control, and custody (CCC).
Water Damage Liability
Water is essential to our everyday living but can be a pain when it causes serious property damage. Your neighbor may not be responsible for damages to your property if there are naturally occurring conditions. For example, if your neighbor is at a higher ground and excess runoff of rain damages your garden. Your neighbor will most likely not be responsible. If your neighbor does any changes to their landscaping and causes the excess runoff to damage your property, you may be able to receive some recourse from this occurrence. There are three different types of laws that may allow you to seek liability on your neighbor for surface water damage to your property.
Civil Law Rule:
This is also referred to as the Natural Flow Rule, which imposes liability on any landowner that changes the natural flow of the surface water across the land.
Common Enemy Rule:
This rule treats rainwater and other natural sources of water as a common enemy to landowners. Each landowner is expected to protect his or her land from surface and rainwater. Under this modified rule you may still be able to hold your neighbor liable for damages to your property.
Below are some general factors to help your case:
- The comparison of the damage to your property versus the increased use of value to your neighbor’s property.
- How important was the alteration to the property? Ex. the alteration to your neighbor’s property was to save their home.
- The increased damage from surface runoff was reasonably foreseeable to your neighbor at the time of the alteration.
- Careless water damage is often the result of simple accidents and forgetfulness of the responsible party. An example would be a broken hose, leaky sprinkler head, frozen or burst water pipe, and clogged rain gutters.
- Check your insurance policy to see if you’re covered and what covers your neighbor, in any event, you cause property damage to other neighbors.
