Property Loss Cases - Courts Back Homeowners

Recent cases have shown the courts willing to back homeowners in their disputes with builders and insurers. In one case, the court had to deal with the common situation in which the cause of a fire was uncertain. The fire occurred after work had been undertaken by electricians. They had finished their work and left, but before the owner of the house had returned, it caught fire and burned.

 

The owner was able to demonstrate that the work done by the electricians had been negligent, but the expert evidence did not categorically demonstrate that their negligence had caused the fire. The court ruled that the probable cause of the fire was the negligence of the electricians and that they were therefore liable. This approach was backed by the Court of Appeal. The inability of the electricians to show with a reasonable degree of probability that something else, for which they were not responsible, could have caused the fire was fatal to their defence.

 

In another case, the Court ruled that the decision of an insurer to compel the policy holder to use a builder chosen by the insurer made the subsequent contract between the builder and the homeowner subject to the usual protection given to consumers under unfair contract law.

 

These cases show that the courts are willing to protect the end user. In one instance, consumer law was applied to protect the insured and in the second instance, the application of a ‘balance of probabilities’ approach to (rather than a strict requirement to prove) the causation of the fire was applied.