Please Help! Water damage

photographthesun

Please could someone help me, I am deeply worrid and dont know where to turn. We rent a masonett, and on saterday our washing machine broke down and leaked water to the downstairs flat. This has caused some damage and now they think we have to pay for them to have a new celing. As soon as possible I stopped the leak and called out someone to repair the machine. The washing machine belongs to us and is well maintained etc. Both me and my partner are long term sick and cannot afford this situation. The worry is far from helping my health to! They own the flat downstairs, not our landlord (so Im guessing it has nothing to do with the landlord what so ever??)

I do have contents insurance (but this does not cover it), what should I do??!

McKneff

Why does your contents insurance not cover it?
Normally they cover fire and flood at the very least.
Have your spoken to your insurance company.

photographthesun

because its not our properity thats damaged and as I understand it you cannt insure something you dont own? We had a simular situation about a year ago and they said they would only cover any damage to our property. Also contents cover would only cover the contents not the building as far as im aware. scary situation

McKneff

have you had a word with your landlord and explained about your insurnance

FlameCloud

anniehanlon wrote: »

Why does your contents insurance not cover it?
Normally they cover fire and flood at the very least.
Have your spoken to your insurance company.

Aside from the fairly obvious answer of because a ceiling is part of a building, and the op only has contents?

The third party (flat downstairs) can only force you or your insurers to pay if they can prove that you have been negligent in your actions in allowing the loss to occur. This is massivly hard to prove and most wont even bother.

It is nothing to do with you- just stand firm with your neighbours and tell them to contact their landlord/insurance company to sort it out properly. Do not give them any money!

mattymoo

The OP's contents cover does extend to cover your legal liabilities as an occupier of a property. Notify them of the incident and they will investigate and deal with the downstairs neighbour accordingly.

Like flamecloud has said, the neighbour has to prove you were negligent in order to succeed.

photographthesun

thanks for your help everyone. Its good to know that unless we were at fault in some way we are not legially liable. I havnt even informed the insurace company as I didnt think they would cover it (been in this situation before and they said they didnt). However I shall ring them monday and let them know whats happening.

Helga14

This is interesting as I'm in a very similar situation, only in my case i'm the person that had their property damaged by upstairs. On Thursday my neighbours above me washing machine flooded into my flat. Damaging my ceiling. The washine machine that upstairs was using was given to them by a charity so second hand. Also they were using it at 2.30am which is a bit odd.

Airwolf1

The other person ought to claim on their insurance, but their insurance should treat it as a third party claim and seek to recover costs from your insurance company.

photographthesun

Helga14 wrote: »

This is interesting as I'm in a very similar situation, only in my case i'm the person that had their property damaged by upstairs. On Thursday my neighbours above me washing machine flooded into my flat. Damaging my ceiling. The washine machine that upstairs was using was given to them by a charity so second hand. Also they were using it at 2.30am which is a bit odd.

In that case id say they are liable for it, as its their fault for not making sure the machine workd safely as they bought it second hand. But thats just a guess. Pritty stupid thing to buy second hand like that, espechally if your going to run it overnight first time!

geri1965_2

photographthesun wrote: »

In that case id say they are liable for it, as its their fault for not making sure the machine workd safely as they bought it second hand. But thats just a guess. Pritty stupid thing to buy second hand like that, espechally if your going to run it overnight first time!

No, they're not - they are entitled to assume that the machine is in good working order, and the time they use it is irrelevant.

The only occasion I can think of where a person would be liable for damage caused by their washing machine breaking down was it they knew it was faulty and hadn't done anything about it - which would be hard to prove even if it were true.