Neighbours Oil Leak

Simonftb

hi everyone. this is my first post and i`m looking for some help and advice please. My neigbour recently had an oil leak. I have Gas central heating and I smelt some oil fumes in my home. I contacted my insurance company, they sent two companys out to conduct tests and they both concluded it WAS an oil leak from next door.
My problem comes from the fact i think my neighbour is not insured. I think this from talking to him about problem and his odd behaviour and talking to the tennants that rent his property. Can anyone tell me what could possibly happen??

Thank you.
Simon

geri1965_2

What are you claiming for?

Simonftb

thanks for your reply.
the damage was serious enough. the two reports both show a lot of contamination throughout the house. both companies have said quite a lot of work is involved, we have been re-housed and the living room and kitchen floor both have to be dug out to depths specified in the reports. all this obviously will take some time and although my insurance company have assured me everything will be sorted i am concerned as i will have this claim on my insurance.
the owner of the house next door is behaving very oddly. this is were my concerns are. he has contacted my natural gas supplier to claim i have a gas leak affecting his property!! he also contacted environmental health to say the same. Both visited my house and said the same thing to both me and my neighbour - the smells are oil not gas. two totally different smells i`m sure u all know!!
he seems to be dancing around the problem. he has already paid for a plumber to fix the oil leak, and service the boiler. he has been speaking to the council and gas supplier wasting everyones time. he has also arranged for a drainage company "master blaster" to attend. i have been told this by his tennents who by the way are having to still live in the property and have done all thru christmas and new year while suffering from headaches , being sick , drowisiness etc. it is appalling.
i just dont know why he doesnt get his insurance company to sort it like i did. nor do the people renting the property of him. they think he's not insured and i have to agree.
what will happen if he not insured, my insurance company are going to be picking up a rather large bill. if he has no insurance what will happen? if he does have insurance will they pay for it all?

geri1965_2

If he is not living there, he is unlikely to be insured as legal liability generally comes with contents insurance rather than buildings - although he could have a separate public liability policy if he is in business.

If he is uninsured he will have to meet the claim personally - whether your insurers decide to pursue him for this is up to them, if he doesn't have much in the way of assets to meet the claim, they may consider it to be a case of throwing good money after bad.

At the very least they should instruct solicitors to look into it, once they have settled your claim.

Airwolf1

Or claim on your insurance, and your company should treat it as a third party claim - meaning they will seek to recover the cost from neighbour's insurance.

geri1965_2

Airwolf1 wrote: »

Or claim on your insurance, and your company should treat it as a third party claim - meaning they will seek to recover the cost from neighbour's insurance.

I think that's what he is doing.

mattymoo

If remediation work has not started yet then you need to push your insurers for an immediate start.

I've met a few firms who deal in ground remediation (removing contaminants from land) and they feel they are often brought in too late in the day. The top soil will need to be cleaned either in-situ via a network of underground pipes, or dug up and cleaned ex-situ. Former is cheaper but takes months, latter is quick but expensive and a major upheaval. Without action, the contaminant also leaches into brickwork and foundations and will cause ongoing problems for months / years.

Of course, if your property is remediated, there could still be further problems if the neighbour landlord does not act. Contaminants will just continue to leach through. Not sure if they can install an underground barrier to prevent this but something you need to consider.

Debt_Free_Chick

Simonftb wrote: »

all this obviously will take some time and although my insurance company have assured me everything will be sorted i am concerned as i will have this claim on my insurance.

This is why you have insurance, though. If we all relied on other people's insurance to pay for damage to our property, we'd never insure our own property or possessions

And then, having chosen to insure our own property/possessions, it will be on the basis that we make a claim when we need to - irrespective of whether someone else's insurance will pay up.

I'm not trying to be "funny" or rude here, just trying to articulate the logic behind having one's own insurance. I do understand your concern, though.

I think it's up to your insurance company to decide whether to make a claim against your neighbour or not. If he has no insurance (is that really the case? :eek:), then I doubt they'll pursue him - in fact, I'm not sure if there is a case to pursue him. If he has been in some way negligent or "at fault" then your insurer is likely to want his insurer to bear more than half the cost. But it's likely to be "one of those things". As someone who has no option but to have oil (granted, I could rely on calor or electricity), I'm not sure I would notice an oil leak unless there was evidence of it in my property. It could be all the evidence leaked your way and the neighbour simply didn't know

I really don't think you should worry about the claim - be thankful that you had insurance! If your neighbour didn't, then he's picking up his own bill, unlike you

What you ought to be concerned about is whether the remedial action he's taken has actually fixed the leak. On that point, I would tell your insurer what's going on and see if they have any power to check the work undertaken by your neighbour.

Mattymoo gave good advice too about getting the work done to your property, pronto!