Am I liable?

Buttonmoons

I'm hoping this is the right sub forum :cool:

My boiler has started leaking, unbeknown to me, and has flooded downstairs (well if you can call it that, get to that in a second)

First I knew about it was when he knocked on the door, barged in and shouted "YOUR FLOODING MY KITCHEN" I didn't even invite him in! I do not like these people, we have strained reletions as it is because my 3 year old DD apparently runs too loudly, even though she is out of the house most of the day and in bed by 8pm. Tried to get her an asbo and everything.

Anyways, we found the leak was coming from the boiler in the kitchen, I hadn't noticed because my fridge is in that cupboard and it's dark.

So I've phoned the council and waiting for them to fix it.

I went down to his to tell him, and he told me to come in and look at the damage. It's a bit of water staining on the roof, and a bit of wet wallpaper which he deemed fit to rip off himself, ya know, make it look worse.

Now the lady above me flooded my kitchen at some point and I didn't even CONSIDER claiming off insurance, a lick of paint is all you need, and I'm more than capable of buying a £5 roll of wallpaper, or the council would repair it for free, I've not done either so far as I hate this place and am hoping to move in the near future at any rate.

ANYWAYS, he was back at my door with a nice bit of blue paper for me to fill in my insurance details :eek: I was like "No, I don't think so"

Apparently, he has to claim off his insurance for a decorater (yeah because if he had done the damage himself, he would be shelling out for that) as the whole kitchen will need wallpapered now (bearing in mind the damage is exlusively inside this cupboard) and all his ceiling will need repainted.

He is coming the bleeper on this. I am not giving him my insurance details, I have a shockingly high £200 excess and It's not even my fault! It's a council property so I didn't need buildings insurance and the woman on the phone even told me that the council will fix the damage to his house (he has bought his flat in the building, hence why he thinks he has control over noise from above, and every thing else)

Anyways he got abusive at my door, called me stupid and an imbecile, and OF COURSE IT HAS TO COME OFF MY INSURANCE and I was like no it doesn't. He threw the paper at me and stormed off cursing. Not very gentlemanny at all!

What I'm wondering is, am I actually going to have to let this douche claim off my insurance? I have nothing but problems with the gas boiler and the hot water boiler since moving in (one Xmas I had no hot water for 2weeks, with a 6month old baby, lovely)

I'd like some clear proof because apparently I don't know my @rse from my elbow, and he is entitled to claim off my insurance.....AND HE WILL, MARK HIS WORDS!!!

arfurrrr

sorry to here this . who owns the boiler ? council ? try council route , their boiler their problem

1984ReturnsForReal_2

Councils problem...

ormus

normally they would claim off their own insurance, and then that insurance co would seek to recover the monies off any other "guilty" party.
that could be you/your insurance co or the council/s.

.

Buttonmoons

Council owns the boiler.

If they do claim off their own insurance, then the council should cover it (I presume) the woman on the phone told me they will fix it for them, like painting etc.

dacouch

I doubt you would be liable. This is because under common law he would have to prove "Negligence", this in effect is could the damage have "Reasonably" been avoided. If the boiler had a history of breakdowns or leaking and you had ignored this then you might be liable as you had not acted reasonable.

If you were liable it is more likely to be the personal liability under the contents cover that would pick up the claim.

As it's a council flat let them deal with the issue

Buttonmoons

Well it's been fixed, the stop c0ck or whatever it's called (the floating ball) had got stuck, so instead of it turning itself on and off, it had got stuck and the water kept filling up constantly.

Not really anything I could of forseen because I cant see through metal

eco-friendly_2

As stated leave it to the council to sort out.

Well it's been fixed, the stop c0ck or whatever it's called (the floating ball) had got stuck, so instead of it turning itself on and off, it had got stuck and the water kept filling up constantly.

There should be an overflow! have this checked out, it may happen again.

Buttonmoons

I'm sure the overflow HAD filled. So OH says. He was the one speaking to the plumber really.

I have a bad feeling they are about to become a lot harder to tolerate, no doubt I'll be getting the housing man at the door all the time now because, I dropped a grape.

He's just trying to get his whole kitchen decorated, the leak was inside a cupboard, nothing a bit of paint couldn't fix!