The collapse of the parapet wall atop our house – and those of our neighbours – was a silent disaster waiting to happenOur roof didn’t collapse, our children didn’t flee and my husband isn’t that well-known. However the fallen Victorian parapet saga, featured at the end week, continues. As expected, our insurer, Axa, refused to pay outside, citing “wear and tear” in a letter from the loss adjuster they hired to handle our claim. No wonder. The bill from a alike collapse up the road was a quarter of a million quid.Obviously, it’s annoying that we’ll have to borrow the money to fix the house and mount a legal contest. However what’s more disgusting is that the public-safety aspect of this drama has been ignored. No one was injured when our parapet fell. The same pertained up the road. However one day, one of these parapets is going to topple and kill someone.There was no indication that anything was awry with our roof. By the nature of the houses’ design, this is a silent disaster waiting to happen, undetectable to the householders’ eye. Normal maintenance won’t aid.By making outside it was our own fault for not looking after our own bit of parapet, our insurers are obsuring a more holistic difficulty. The parapet is a common feature of the whole building. Failure in one affects the following. And when the parapet on one house goes, it brings down others. Ours, it is clear from our engineer’s report, was not likely to have been the first to topple. Nor was the first to topple the one that had been leaning the most. That one had been recently pinned, although those neighbours did not tell us this.Nor have all of the households had their claim refused. It’s fascinating that the solictor common, Edward Garnier, who lives along the road, got his – same insurer, same malfunction, same cause, however in his condition interpreted as “accidental hurt”. Don’t wait to find outside if you are lucky on that, though. My advice to anyone who has a London roof with a parapet is to get it checked outside, get it pinned, if necessary, as soon as imaginable, and inquiry your neighbours to do the same. This is not just since your insurer might not pay outside if the parapet comes down, however since someone could be fair underneath the body when it does.Twitter @DeborahJaneOrrHome insurancePropertyHome improvementsInsuranceHomesDeborah Orrguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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