Liability claims against the council

If you are making a claim against Lambeth Council. It will be necessary for you to prove in civil law that the council has been negligent and/or breached its statutory duty.

Procedure for claims involving Lambeth Council

If you wish to make a claim against the council you firstly need to complete an incident report form.

You should provide any evidence to support your claim (such as documents or photographs) with your incident report form.

We will acknowledge receipt of your completed and signed incident report form within 21 days. At this point we will inform you whether the claim is being handled ‘in-house’ or by claims handlers acting on our behalf.

Usually if a claim is of high value or involves a personal injury, it will be dealt with by external claims handlers and all correspondence must be directed to them.

The council has 90 days to investigate your claim and reach a decision on liability, in accordance with legislation known as the ‘Woolf Protocol’. You should receive a letter within 90 days of the acknowledgment of your claim informing you whether the claim has been accepted or denied.

If your claim is for property damage, you will be asked to
supply the original receipts if available and confirm the age
of the items. You may also need to supply estimates for
replacement, repair or cleaning of the damaged items.

Personal injury

If your claim is for an injury, our claims handlers will seek your authorisation to approach your GP or hospital and request medical evidence.

Other parties

If the incident appears to have occurred because of another party, your claim may be passed on to that other party. Examples of this include utility companies and independent building/maintenance contractors.

The limits of compensation claims

Please be aware that, should the council admit liability, the age and condition of your goods will be taken into account. When you buy home insurance, you pay for a ‘new for old’ service, but the council is not an insurance company and does not offer such a service. Neither does it accept liability for incidents that could not have been foreseen or that are caused by factors outside its control.

Therefore, the option to claim compensation is not an alternative to buying your own household contents insurance.

Visit from a claims investigator

You may be contacted by one of Lambeth’s claims investigators to arrange a joint visit, either to your home or to the site of your incident.

The claims investigator will normally take photographs of any relevant evidence and take a statement from you in order to gather further information about your claim. Our claims investigators are also responsible for ensuring that any potential fraud is detected and, if appropriate, prosecuted.

Once the council’s investigations are complete, it will either accept or refuse your claim on the basis of legal liability.

Data Sharing

Please be aware that Lambeth Council shares information on
claims and claimants with its insurers, the Association of British Insurers and other local authorities for the purposes of detection and prevention of fraud. Lambeth Council also
subscribes to Fraudline, tel 0800 328 9270, as part of its anti-fraud strategy.

Unhappy with your claim

If you are not satisfied with your claim because we have refused to compensate you for your losses you are entitled to seek independent legal advice.

However before you do so we strongly recommend you read our Unhappy with the outcome of your claim leaflet. The leaflet will help you decide what to do next.

Contact details

Risk and Insurance Section
London Borough of Lambeth
3rd Floor Brixton Customer Centre
18 Brixton Hill
London SW2 1RL

Telephone: 020 7926 9290
Fax: 020 7926 9764
Email: RiskAndInsurance@lambeth.gov.uk