Background

Trees are great for urban areas – cooling down the temperature in the summer, providing shade for people, animals and birds, and are a net positive on the environment. However, once trees mature, they can cause structural damage through root encroachment, leading to liability claims.

Defending tree root claims is just one of our many specialisms, and our specialist loss adjusting team has over 20 years’ experience in managing liability claims for insurers and local authorities due to tree root encroachment. Each case is handled by the same adjuster from notification to settlement, for a consistent approach that supports successful final negotiations, and enabling early assessment of the likely extent of repairs.

Recent cases

Below are some recent cases of tree related liabilities we have successfully defended in the last year.

Case 1

A claimant made a claim against our policyholder, alleging crack damage to his building due to tree root encroachment. We challenged the claim, citing unreliable monitoring by the claimant as they had failed to file an initial appraisal report showing photos of the damage. Furthermore, we proved that that the building had insufficient foundations, therefore general climactic conditions couldn’t be ruled out.

While the claimant did attempt to challenge our denial of liability, they were unable to support their claims, and denial in full was maintained. This saved our policyholder £39,250.

Case 2

This claimant also alleged crack damage to their building due to alleged tree root subsidence against our policyholder. We denied liability, disputing the causation of the damages to the building, arguing that it was the claimant’s own trees which were the proximate cause of damage. Additionally, there was a lack of evidence, such as desiccation or monitoring data to implicate the insured tree as the source of the issue.

Deniability was challenged but unsuccessful, saving our policyholder £22,778.90.

Case 3

Our policyholder received a claim for damages to the claimant’s property from alleged tree root subsidence. The claimant alleged cracking damage to their property. However, liability was denied based on insufficient causation and a lack of foreseeability.

After our case was put forward, the claimant did not pursue their claim further, therefore denial of liability had been accepted, saving our client £89,000.

For more information on our tree-related liability claims, please contact:

Marc Wadsworth
Operations Director – Casualty
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