Flood damage from next door

jestaminnit

Hello
Can any one advise on the following please.
My daughter lives in property rented from a Housing Association.
The people next door went away over the w/e and a pipe burst, flooding their home, and my daughters, lounge and kitchen, ruining her carpets. If the Housing Association had responded to her call within the hour her carpets would have been saved, instead we had to call the Fire Brigade (lights on next door) to gain acess and switch water and electric off, The Team Leaer of the crew spoke to the Hosing Association to get permisission to force entry, and had to wait 15 mins fora reply. All this happened on the Friday, we managed to locate the neighbors and thay came home on Sunday, within ad hour the Association sent someone round to turn water and electrics back on and declare the situation safe.

My Daughter has contents Insurance but with a £350 excess, the people next door where the pipe burst (rented from same Housing Association) do not have insurance The Housing Assocaition say they will not pay for the excess on my daughters policy. I may be wrong but isn't a burst pipe covered by Buildings Ins? and therefore the responsibility of the landlord? To add insult to injury the Housing Association are replacing next doors floor covering (albeit with Vynl) as they have no insurance and cannot afford to replace it themselves. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

somalt

The cost of repairing the burst pipe maybe covered on the buildings insurance, depending on the cause of the burst. But it doesn't appear your daughter is being asked to pay for those. A buildings policy would not cover the excess of a contents claim, regardless of the cause of damage.

The housing association situation is a bit of a red herring, even if the next door neighbour had their own contents insurance or separate buildings insurance it's unlikely that your daughter would be able to claim from them.

To claim off the neighbour they would need to be negligent, not just to have had the misfortune to have a leak on their property. So they would have needed to be aware there was a fault and done nothing.

Possibly you might be able to get somewhere with the housing association about their response time. Is there any service level information in her lease or on their website?

jestaminnit

Many thanks for your response. I appreciate the detail you gave in the answer. Unfortunatley I was wrong, I had hoped it was down to the Housing Association. However the response time looks like the best course of action. When my daughter mentioned getting the report from the Officer in charge of the visiting team, they back tracked a little, asking her not to be too hasty. I re-call the officer reporting into his radio that the association were being obstructive, when he was trying to explain that getting access was a priority.
Once again Thank You:T

somalt

Hopefully you'll have some joy with the housing association direct, every little helps and I'm sure they have must have some kind of complaint process which you can use.

It's so frustrating when you are trying to prevent something happening and you're just getting nowhere!

latecomer

we got flooded 4 times from flats above us and basically unless there is element of negligence then the insurance company wont consider claiming against the other party. It sounds like you may have this so make sure you push it.

billiebimbo

The upstairs flat has leaked into my bedroom - we have a mutual insurnance company as it is a converted property and there are multiple flats. 6 months ago we reported a leak and were told it was the washing machine leak from when the new tenants had a new washing machine put in. This was repaired but the problem did not go away so we called out the insurance company again and they found a second leak which has caued enormous damage and the repair is under way. However now the insurance company are saying that I must pay the excess even though the damage was not caused by me in any way - surely this can't be correct? That i have to pay the excess of £250 when I believe there is negligence in that the plumber presumed the damage was only one pipe and id no furhter investigation? any advice on this?

InsideInsurance

Firstly, it is probably best to start your own thread rather than hjacking someone elses.

As has been pointed out on here there has to be negligence on behalf of another party for you to be able to claim off of them. The tenants don't appear to have been negligent but there is a chance that the plumber may have been.

You would have to pay your excess but your insurers may be able to recover their outlay and you your excess from the plumber. Thus putting you back in the same place and negating the claim from your contents insurance.

To be honest, your chances are going to be fairly slim but you should speak to your insurers and/ or your legal expenses provider if you have added this to your contents insurance.