A resident whose house was severely damaged by a fallen tree over a month ago is still having to live with holes in her roof, whilst insurance companies squabble over who is liable for the damage.
Elizabeth French, who is 48 and lives on Maypole Green Road, woke in the middle of the night to find that a 30ft beech tree from neighbouring land, owned by the Ministry of Defence, had smashed into her property in the early hours of Saturday, July 10.
Although the tree was removed from her property within a matter of days, the damage done to her house has taken much longer to rectify.
Six weeks on from the incident, the Ministry of Defence’s insurers, Davies Group, has refused to pay the £250 excess insurance fee, claiming that they are still trying to work out who is liable for the damage caused by the tree.
It left Ms French having to collect rain water in plastic buckets to prevent further damage to her home.
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Earlier this week, Ms French then had to resort to buying and putting up a gigantic tarpaulin sheet – measuring 6m x 13m – to keep out rain water from her loft and conservatory.
She said: “It’s been six weeks since the tree fell on the house – really, someone should have covered the roof.
“We’ve been collecting water in plastic trugs, passing them through down the loft hatch, and emptying them into the bath.
“I ordered a tarpaulin because nothing was really happening, and I put up on Monday evening.
“I’m absolutely exhausted and my husband and I are both at our wits’ end.”
Worse still is the fact that Ms French had contacted the MOD as far back as 2014 raising concerns about the unmaintained beech tree, which for years had been sprawling closer and closer to private property.
She said: “It’s fairly indisputable that the tree, from the army land, not properly managed, falling onto my house and damaging my house and the conservatory roof so that they’re not water tight, makes the MOD legally responsible.
“We’ve spent six weeks with water coming in both the house roof and conservatory, whilst the legal people just seem to shuffle their papers around.”
She added: “My husband and I are both suffering mentally and physically from the stress.
“Whilst they say “it’s fine, whatever damage further to this occurs, we’ll repair it,” it’s not really much consolation when you’re catching water in your loft.”
When the Gazette contacted the Ministry of Defence for comment, a spokesman released the following statement.
It read: “We are sorry to hear that Mrs French is concerned that progress is not being made in making repairs to her property.
“In situations such as this one, claims against the MOD are handled by the Davis Group through TopMark. We have been working with Mrs French, MOD Claims and the Davis Group to take her claim forward.
“The Davis Group has advised that, in line with normal practice in such situations, further investigations will be required to determine if MOD is liable.
“They expect their investigations to be completed by 31 August. Meanwhile, Mrs French has been advised to make a claim on her home insurance so that her insurers can begin the repairs while liability is settled.”
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