Mum ‘left with PTSD’ after garden wall crashed into family home and could cost her up to £30k to repair

A mum says she has been ‘left with PTSD’ after her garden wall crashed into her house and could cost her up to £30k to repair. 

Lucy Gawthorpe, 33, says she was woken up by a loud bang at around 4am on February 9 and rushed downstairs to see water spraying across her kitchen. The 30-year-old garden wall had crashed through the conservatory window of the family home in Nottingham.

Lucy and her partner say they’ve attempted to claim through their insurers, Policy Expert, but have been told the company will not be able to help. Lucy says one reason for this is that the company claimed it was due to poor weep hole drainage, which was disproved when a contractor came to look at the wall. She claims that the company then changed their story, stating the wall’s "poor design" was why they couldn’t pay out.

Lucy says her mental health has suffered since the incident as she lives in constant fear of the wall collapsing again.

Lucy, who works as an accountant, said: “I have a two-year-old in the house and if that falls on her then she is dead. It could fall at any time so we can’t use the garden. Every time it rains that wall gets worse and worse. They can’t just leave it like that and make us sit and wait for disaster to strike.”

“I have the stress of dealing with all these people and the fear that this could all cost me £20-30K. We don’t have that amount of money to pay out on a wall.

A representative of Policy Expert and Trinity Claims said: “We understand how distressing an event of this nature must have been for Miss Gawthorpe. Following our own surveyor’s inspection we also appointed an independent Structural Engineer, both reached the same conclusion, that the failure of the wall was caused by an inherent defect and therefore not covered under the home insurance policy. 

"We appreciate how disappointing this must have been for Miss Gawthorpe, but we are satisfied that our expert’s opinion is correct, and we have offered to cover the cost of the damage caused to her conservatory.”