Dispute advice: The importance of being early

As we approach a year of lockdowns, I have seen an noticeable increase in the number of disputes, particularly relating to access, the location of neighbours boundaries and landlord/tenant matters.

The good news is that many problems can be avoided by early engagement. We provide impartial but, where necessary, challenging advice in a friendly and helpful manner. However, I would stress again to contact the CLA at the earliest possible opportunity. The sooner you call, the more we can help and where necessary refer you to the relevant experts in order to see through your case.

In all these cases it is always recommended that you seek to settle disputes at the earliest stage possible and avoid escalation which can lead to expensive, uncertain and confrontational litigation.

While it may appear that you will settle the dispute easily you should always be prepared and contact your insurer to forewarn them of the possibility of a dispute.

You should do this for two primary reasons. First is that it’s likely that your policy requires that you notify your insurer at the first opportunity so that they can assess your position. Secondly, in certain areas there are statutory time limits in the procedures, and you will not want your case to miss any deadline because you were waiting for your insurer.

For existing CLA Insurance clients you can call the free hotline, details of which are contained in your insurance papers.

The first thing to do is to check your policy. This goes beyond legal fee cover as it is important to know if your house and business assets will be secure if the worse comes into being.

You should ask yourself can you afford not to be insured? This point has been emphasied by Covid’s impact on businesses across the world and the number of people who didn’t fully understand what cover they had. So if you are looking for a quote from CLA Insurance please feel free to call 01234 311211 or visit clainsurance.co.uk

CLA members may of course contact John Greenshields on john.greenshields@cla.org.uk or 07809 495331 for further advice.