Neighbours Burst Pipe, I'm uninsured.

Saturated

I had the delight of coming home to find my electricity tripped and water pouring into my flat from what I assume was a burst pipe from the neighbour above me. I knocked, but found nobody home, so phoned the housing association. They were closed for Christmas, but had left an emergency contact number, which I called. They eventually got the water turned off, with the police to force entry, as they had no contact details for the tenant.

Unfortunately, the contractors (From another social housing association) eventually figured out that I was not one of their homes, so all the assistance they promised was promptly cancelled and I was left to find myself a place to spend the night, and advised to contact my housing association for a clean up crew. As I have no heating, lighting or electricity there has been very little I can do about the situation. I managed to save a few documents and such, but that’s all I’m in a position to do, as I have no contents insurance, no transport, storage space or disposable income.

In my opinion, the above tenants were negligent for not taking reasonable precautions to prevent it, though I have no idea if they’re insured (They’re still away,) or if their insurance would agree with me and cover my losses. However, I can be certain that most of my furniture belongings, even many electrical goods, would have been salvageable had I been able to get this elusive cleanup crew I was promised. My housing association reopens on the 4th and I hope to get that sorted then, but I know it will be too late to rescue my possessions, and I’m guessing I will have lost almost everything after more than a week in those conditions, it’s already starting to stink.

My lease states that my landlord isn’t insured for my possessions, unless they’re negligent, so does being completely uncontactable constitute negligence? As if they had made any attempts other than turning off the tap, almost everything would probably have been rescued.
Failing that, umm, what do I do now? I was in the process of applying for a debt relief order already, and now I have lost pretty much everything and am essentially homeless. So I cannot even afford to replace the frozen food I’ve had to throw away, let alone tv, pc, mattresses, couch, carpets etc.

Any help you can offer, or any where you could point me for assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Happy new year!

PasturesNew

I can be of no use whatsoever, but didn't like to read and run..... soon there'll be people answering that can really point you in the right direction. However, we've had a lot of similar postings in the past few weeks, so I've just gone back through them and found this one https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2908380

If you read that one, it's written from a different person's perspective, but gives you information/knowledge that is relevant.

Re: Being homeless. There must be an Emergency Housing Person's number somewhere for your HA/Council; yes they're all on holiday, but somebody will be on emergency call. Somebody, somewhere.

In view of the fact you have no money whatsoever, if I were you I'd try to get hold of a lilo and kip in the bath. You can blow up some supermarket bags to act as pillows, lilo in the bath, borrow a quilt/whatever.... at least you'll have a roof over your head.

If you say who your landlord is/what town or area you're in, maybe somebody in that area can track down the emergency numbers etc you'll need.

Good luck!

tomitma

Although I really feel sorry for you, I still can not understand why you did not have insurance for your contents, almost every council, and housing association have schemes, where you can pay as little as five pounds a month for £25,000 pounds of contents. Practically every day we read in the newspapers or online, about fires or floods in houses, with the occupants wailing we didn't have insurance. Surely anyone with a bit of sense would, insure there own possessions. We all take out insurance to protect ourselves, and possessions, when we go on holiday, that is only for about two weeks a year, so why do people think that nothing will happen during the other 50 weeks of the year?

The housing association won't pay up for what has been destroyed. It is not there responsibility. It is yours. They have all there buildings insured, but it is up to the tenent to insure there own possessions. I know that all councils, and housing associations, have emergency numbers in there offices, and some even send round leaflets to there tenents when bank holidays are coming around. I am sorry but you will not be able to shift the blame here. You should have insured yourself.

When you drive a car you have insurance, you may be the safest driver in the world. But it only takes one other idiot, to destroy your car.

macman

You can take a civll action against the neighbour, but to win it you would have to prove that they were negligent, which (if it was due to a burst pipe in the recent extreme weather conditions, would be extremely difficult). And if you lose, you'll have to pay their costs. If they're uninsured like you, then it's unlikely that you'll recover any money, even if you win.

haras_nosirrah

I am afraid that it was your responsibility to get contents insurance unless you can prove negligence (such as them going on holiday and leaving the tap on) I don't think you will be successful here. Check out freecycle to see if you can get some replacement furniture - it may not be the best stuff but it may tide you over for a bit. A dehumidifier may help to get some of the water out of things so they may be recoverable. Best of luck to you OP - a very unfortunate situation

p00hsticks

Saturated wrote: »

My lease states that my landlord isn’t insured for my possessions, unless they’re negligent, so does being completely uncontactable constitute negligence? As if they had made any attempts other than turning off the tap, almost everything would probably have been rescued.

I'm sorry to hear what's happened to you - it must be a nightmare. But I'm afraid that you're not going to get anywhere with trying to claim negligence.

From what you say, the housing association that looks after the flat that leaked WAS contactable, and did deal with the problem in getting the water switched off.

And in the extreme cold weather, I don't think you can say that the tenant was negligent either.

I'm very surprised that your own housing association doesn't have an emergency number, but even so, I think the bottom line will be that you choose whether or not to insure your own belongings for events like this, and if you choose not to, you accept the consequences if something like this happens.

tomitma

Saturated wrote: »

In my opinion, the above tenants were negligent for not taking reasonable precautions to prevent it, though I have no idea if they’re insured (They’re still away,) or if their insurance would agree with me and cover my losses. However, I can be certain that most of my furniture belongings, even many electrical goods, would have been salvageable had I been able to get this elusive cleanup crew I was promised. My housing association reopens on the 4th and I hope to get that sorted then, but I know it will be too late to rescue my possessions, and I’m guessing I will have lost almost everything after more than a week in those conditions, it’s already starting to stink.

Sorry but in my opinion if anyone has been negligent, it is you for not having contents insurance, no-one ever learns this lesson unless it happens to themselves. Unfortunetly it is a lesson that turns out to be costly.

bris

If you were flooded from the house above then the house above is liable for everything. Your housing assosiation will have a claim against who ever owns the hosue aboves insurers. The fact you have no insurance is irrelavant here as your claim is agaainst the up stairs neighbour.
This is absolute codswallop about all this upstairs may not be liable for this or that, they are.

PasturesNew

bris wrote: »

If you were flooded from the house above then the house above is liable for everything. Your housing assosiation will have a claim against who ever owns the hosue aboves insurers. The fact you have no insurance is irrelavant here as your claim is agaainst the up stairs neighbour.
This is absolute codswallop about all this upstairs may not be liable for this or that, they are.

I believe this..... the trouble will be getting them to pay for it if they have no insurance.

This will be a long, lonely and depressing haul OP.

dacouch

bris wrote: »

If you were flooded from the house above then the house above is liable for everything. Your housing assosiation will have a claim against who ever owns the hosue aboves insurers. The fact you have no insurance is irrelavant here as your claim is agaainst the up stairs neighbour.
This is absolute codswallop about all this upstairs may not be liable for this or that, they are.

Unfortunately Civil Law in the UK works on the basis of negligence, just because the flat above has had a major leak does not neccesarily mean they have been negligent and therefore are liable

G_M

If yu can show that the ustairs flat failed to leave heating on to protect the pipes during this cold weather, and/or failed to drain down their system while away, you may well have a case for negligence. Most tenancy agreements require tenants to do this, in order to avoid precisely this scenario. Even if it is not expressly written into the tenancy agreement, tenants have a duty to act in a 'tenant-like' manner and look afetr the property they occupy.

Similarly most insurance policies insist on the same precautions. Thus failure to take precautions is negligence.

Proving they failed to do either of these things may be difficult, though a burst pipe is in itself evidence that they probobly did not!

So a claim is certainly possible against the upstairs neighbours. If they have insurance, most policies include cover for 3rd party claims, so their insurance would quite possibly repay you. If not, you have to rely on the neighbours themselves paying you, which asumes they have assets from which to pay.

Speak to your HA, the CAB or a solicitor. Then write to the neirghbours listing your losses/expenses and requesting payment.

Oh - and get yourself some insurance.