Flooded GF Flat

carefullycautious

Contents insurance

I am having to claim from neighbours insurance for a flood which occured from his flat to my GF flat.

The damage was to carpets and decoration for which i need 2 quotes each.

1. is it possible to have the carpet claim paid to me in cheque form as opposed to the insurance company paying the carpet company direct? The reason for this is that we are going to have to have some work done to the ceilings etc plus the tiled floor which is going to take some time.

2. As we are claiming from our contents insurance who will then claim from the neighbours contents insurance we have been told that we cannot claim for redecorating the walls as this comes under building insurance. If this is the case do we get quotes for the work and submit these directly to neighbours insurers. Im totally at a loss how this all works.

First floor flat is owner occupied and my flat is local authority we both have contents insurance but only the neighbour has building i think.
Hope this makes sense

vaio

General rule is neighbour is only liable if he was legally negligent. This means they knew the leak was likely or happening and didn’t take reasonable steps to prevent it.

For an unexpected leak you can’t claim against them (or their insurance).

carefullycautious

:eek: Blimey my insurance company said that unless i was trying to claim thousands and not like for like there should not be a problem with recouping the money and that it only takes a short time to settle.

Annisele

There's a difference between trying to claim from your insurance company on your insurance, and trying to get somebody else's insurance to pay out. Your insurance company might be quite happy to pay you, but that doesn't mean it'll bother making a claim against the other party.

(I initially read this as being about your girlfriend's flat, then realised you probably meant ground floor. But if this is about your girlfriend, she'll have to claim, not you!)

carefullycautious

GF Ground floor flat not girlfriends flat.

Thanks for the replies

kingstreet

The buildings insurance will normally be held by the freeholder of the building. Chances are, if it's a LA block, they will be the holder of the buildings insurance.

What you've been told so far is quite right. You can only hold the flat owner upstairs legally responsible if they were negligent in not taking steps to prevent this happening.

It's the LA buildings insurance and your contents insurer in the frame for this, based on what you've told us.