Water leak in the bathroom has damaged the flat below

minibbb

Evening!

All my posts on here seem to be about my damn bathroom but anyway, here we go!!

I had a new bathroom vinyl floor put down a couple of weeks ago but noticed the vinyl lifting where it sat against the bath panel. Initially I thought it was a poor quality floor issue until the lady downstairs told me she had water dripping from her ceiling!

The plumber came over and removed my now warped bath panel to find a tiny hole had formed in one of the copper supply pipes....from limescale apparently! There was I thinking copper didnt corrode!

Anyway, its been repaired and my bathroom is slowly drying out. The thing is the lady downstairs is claiming her flat is water damaged and that wooden skirting/doorframes have cracked.

Im guessing this will need to be dealt with by insurance. Will it be building or contents and who is liable for the excess?

Would be nice to get a new bathroom floor out of it for me!

Thanks in advance for any help!

stephen25uk

minibbb wrote: »

Evening!

All my posts on here seem to be about my damn bathroom but anyway, here we go!!

I had a new bathroom vinyl floor put down a couple of weeks ago but noticed the vinyl lifting where it sat against the bath panel. Initially I thought it was a poor quality floor issue until the lady downstairs told me she had water dripping from her ceiling!

The plumber came over and removed my now warped bath panel to find a tiny hole had formed in one of the copper supply pipes....from limescale apparently! There was I thinking copper didnt corrode!

Anyway, its been repaired and my bathroom is slowly drying out. The thing is the lady downstairs is claiming her flat is water damaged and that wooden skirting/doorframes have cracked.

Im guessing this will need to be dealt with by insurance. Will it be building or contents and who is liable for the excess?

Would be nice to get a new bathroom floor out of it for me!

Thanks in advance for any help!

its your fault..you have admitted it,its your insurance so it will be you who pays the excess

phill99

It'll be off your Buildings Insurance. In my experience, if it is s purpose built flat, there is normally a management company who, via the service charge, have a buildings insurance policy for the whole block. You will be responsible for the excess. Hardly right to let the lady downstairs pick up the cost of the excess. If you are claiming for her ceiling, then put a claim in for your vinyl flooring and the bath panel - that should be covered too.

keystone

minibbb wrote: »

The plumber came over and removed my now warped bath panel to find a tiny hole had formed in one of the copper supply pipes....from limescale apparently!

:rotfl:That wouldn't be the same plumber who laid the vinyl floor for you would it? Its far more likely to be froma copper nail used to fix down the hardboard before the vynyl floor was laid - assuming its sheet vinyl of course.

The thing is the lady downstairs is claiming her flat is water damaged and that wooden skirting/doorframes have cracked.

BS. A tiny pinhole leak doesn't cause that sort of damage in 2 weeks. Say nothing.

Im guessing this will need to be dealt with by insurance. Will it be building or contents and who is liable for the excess?

You claim off your insurance if you think you need to and she claims off hers and they sort it our between them.

Would be nice to get a new bathroom floor out of it for me!

You want a new bathroom floor after only two weeks? Are we getting the whole story here?

Cheers

googler

minibbb wrote: »

The thing is the lady downstairs is claiming her flat is water damaged and that wooden skirting/doorframes have cracked.

It'll be up to the insurance company's assessor or loss adjuster to determine what needs to be done to her flat. Place it in your insurance company's hands, and put her in touch with your insurance company to debate her claim.

dave82_2

You would think that you would be liable but a very simelar thing happened to my folks.

The hot water tank in their loft burst and leaked into the neigbours house a terrace.

My folks assumed that their insurance would pay for the damage to the neigbours house but the insurance company refused and the neigbours had to claim on their insurance!

My folks paid the excess as a good will gesture but seemingly it was the neighbours responsability to get it fixed under their insurance!

It might be the same for you?

latecomer

stephen25uk wrote: »

its your fault..you have admitted it,its your insurance so it will be you who pays the excess

Unless there is a element of negligence then its got nothing to do with his insurance. The person downstairs will have to claim off her own insurance. If the poster wants to be nice they can offer to pay the excess but they certainly dont have to.

stephen25uk

latecomer wrote: »

Unless there is a element of negligence then its got nothing to do with his insurance. The person downstairs will have to claim off her own insurance. If the poster wants to be nice they can offer to pay the excess but they certainly dont have to.

the op will need to claim off there own insurance regardless even if only for there own damage to there own flat...so they will have to pay the excess.....dont get what your posting....are you thinking the women downstairs with water damage will pay for a new floor up stairs from her own insurance?

latecomer

you previous post was rather unspecific and seemed to be implying that the poster would be liable for the excess for the damage downstairs which isn't the case. thats all I was trying to clarify.

The upstairs flat is responsible for the damage to their flat, the downstairs neighbour has to claim off their own insurance for the damage caused by the escape of water and unless there is an element of negligence its got nothing to do with the upstairs flat's insurance.

minibbb

Thanks for all the replies and apologies for the delay in getting back on here!

To clarify my original post, I was wondering whether generally I would pick up the excess or whether the "excessive) maintainance we pay would cover it, not my neighbour downstairs!! I'd hardly say "its my fault". Ive not done anything wrong here apart from suffering bad luck! As soon as I realised there was a leak it was fized straight away.

Keystone- does your plumber fit vinyl flooring too then?! The floor was fitted a couple of weeks back by a carpet firm. The pipe that has leaked runs along the length of the bath above the floor and I was shown where the leak was. The flooring was fitted against the bath panel which was fized firmly in place and the floor was dry at the time as I saw it. I also saw the drenched scene after the bath panel was removed and the source of the leak discovered! The vinyl floor cost £100 so its a fairly cheep job but all I could afford. Its now discoloured and looks a mess! Thats the whole story, im not after a bespoke tiled floor here!:)

The floor is a tongue and groove floating chipboard design with a thick layer of insulation underneath. Its not really drying out much and the chipboard has gone soft so looks like the floor needs to be replaced too :mad:

I called the managing agents yesterday and today but am awaiting to hear anything back from them re the insurance. Nice to know my £1000 or more a year buys me a good service! I really hope the lady downstairs won't have to claim off her own insurance as that doesnt seem very fair when after all the problem came from my dodgy pipe!

Our building insurance covers the whole block so hopefully will cover all the work. We have individual contents insurance but I dont think our contents as such are damaged?!

hazybubbles

the lady down has to claim off her insurance as your insurance is for YOUR flat - not hers! Her insurance then contacts yours if you are admitting liability as such and they will claim back the money from your insurance company. Its the same as for a car accident.