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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Nick @ NM Garden Services Ltd on July 8, 2011 at 7:30

At least you can claim off your glass cover on your motor policy (doesn't affect NCB) rather than having to use up a no claims bonus on your Public Liability insurance.

Nick

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Adam Pilgrim on July 8, 2011 at 8:29

This is the very reason that I cut one of my commercial contracts at weekends. The car park is grassed but underneath is gravel/hardcore and the site has recently had major building works undertaken.

 

I opted to cut at weekends to avoid damaging any of the £20K BMWS and Mercedes that are normally parked there....

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Permalink Reply by Cesare Harradine on July 8, 2011 at 9:07

I've in the business for over thirty years and went through a spell of putting stones through windows a few years ago.  Most of the incidents were on commercial sites where building work had been carried out without my knowlage and builders had failed to clear the lawn properly.  As you will now know, it only takes a very small stone to break a window.  Stones of this size cannot be spotted with the usual pre-cut safety inspection.  I have since put the requirment in my contracts that I be informed of any activities that may result in unseen debris being left in the lawn.

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Gardens4u.co.uk on July 8, 2011 at 10:43

http://paper.li/LandscapeJuice/landscape-juice-network

 

whats this then phil ?   i got sent it by twitter i think

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Roy Parker on July 8, 2011 at 13:43

i did the same thing about 6 weeks ago   to my girl friends car  i paid the excess

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Permalink Reply by 2p6qs98d2phid on July 8, 2011 at 18:58

Done the same thing a few weeks ago to my own van, sent the wrong glass first when they fitted the right one didn't ask me to pay the excess :-)

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by andy@ Doughty Garden Maintenance on July 8, 2011 at 21:21

A few years ago i sent a stone through my neighbours car window, I too thought someone had shot it, it was so loud!

I had to knock on his door and tell him, i was so embarrassed, he was fine about it, i insisted on paying the excess for him.

He did used to move his car whenever he heard me getting the mower out after that!!

Trouble with that house was a gravel drive right next to a lawn. I'm always weary of stones and windows now wherever i am mowing, and advise people not to have gravel anywhere near their lawns.

 

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Permalink Reply by Chris @ Tidy Garden Company on July 10, 2011 at 9:46

This happend to me for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

 

It was a customers house window, and it was also my first visit to their house.

 

After I paid for a new window and apologised ect, they never asked me back, nor did they pay for the work id already done.

 

Always been weary about mowing near glass since lol

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Permalink Reply by briggsandscrapem on July 10, 2011 at 14:56

We've always paid for damages ourselves without claiming on the insurance ( two incidents this year already) but i had an interesting conversation with a retired gardener who lives at a sheltered housing scheme i maintain.

He smashed a very large feature window at a prestigious country house whilst mowing the lawn which cost a fortune to replace so he went through his insurance.  

The insurance company rang him up and asked him if the customer had requested him to cut the grass as a part of the gardening service so he told them that yes they had.  They then rang the house holders insurance and refused to pay out on the claim because the gardener had been instructed to cut the grass by the customer so it was their fault and not the gardeners. The customers insurance never took it any further and that was the last he heard of the matter.

So i don't know but maybe if you take all reasonable precautions then your not liable anyway, or more likely the insurance company knew that the other company wouldn't bother trying to sue for the money so they just called their bluff on it.

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Permalink Reply by 2p6qs98d2phid on July 10, 2011 at 15:56

I've heard the same thing from the NFU if it was the customer stone that went through the window, it is their fault.

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Permalink Reply by Andy Thorne on July 10, 2011 at 20:37

I think that the deciding factor is whether or not the party at 'fault' has been negligent or not.  If we take reasonable care to not send stones through windows we cannot be held liable.  However as a customer care issue we all should make good any damage without the customer losing out!

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