House insurance - roof leak from next door causing my home damage

cahill

Hi there,

Can anyone give me some advice please.

I have an outbuilding that is joined to next doors outbuilding.

My flat roof felted covering is in perfect condition. Unfortunately next doors covering is old and worn.

It is such that water has leaked through from the poorly maintained flat roof from next door and into my property causing extensive problems.

To my horror I went into the outbuilding (for the 1st time in 1 month) tonight only to discover the plasterboard ceiling in parts collapsed and other parts bellied through significant water ingress.

All of my floor boards are heavily water soaked and beyond any sort of salvation. The dreaded mold has started and the entire room is now a complete damp and smelly nightmare.

It looks like it is going to cost £000's to rectify.

I have mountains of children’s toys and clothes stored in there - all of which are ruined.

I am unsure as to whether my insurance would cover this situation as my roof is in perfect condition. I have mentioned this to my neighbour who is not a very nice person and as expected he showed little concern before mumbling about calling round to take a look.

I think they are insured.

I have building and contents with accidental damage on both.

Thanks

Nicky

shelly

We have exactly the same problem. You really need to phone your ins co and ask them what your options are.

IIRC our main 2 options were.....
1) Get our side fixed and leave their side but this isn't worth doing as the problem is still there.

2) Go through our insurance and then they claim back off the neighbour. But if the neighbour isn't insured then you are stuck as you then have to write it off or go to court.

Trouble is that you can't force the neighbour to fix their side, so whatever you do isn't going to be worth it without them getting their side done at the same time.
We left it for the time being as I spoke to the neighbour and she didn't think she was insured. Shortly after she moved out. Its now sold so hopefully the new owners will get it sorted. Hubby has been up on the roof to patch it up and the other end to where the hole is is so water logged that its bowing and he's surprised it hasn't caved in yet! In the summer the weeds get waist height :eek:


Good luck and I hope you can get your neighbour to see sense and get it fixed

qprfact

I wouldn't try and pursue a claim against neighbours at this stage - doesn't sound very hopeful.

I'd claim on my own insurance, and give them the details of the neighbour at fault. Then they SHOULD try and recover their costs from neighbour.

It will be far quicker for you in terms of getting the work done.

Astaroth

The problem of cause is that the insurers will reinstate your own property but cannot touch the neighbours and therefore it will simply happen again. If you have legal expenses cover on your home insurance I would ask to speak to the 24/7 helpline you get with it to discuss the matter about if there is a way to force the neighbour to rectify the issue as it is causing damage to your property.

cahill

Thanks all.

Next door have told their insurers that their roof has caused my property damage and they have loss adjusters coming around on Wednesday to have a look.

Reading all these posts I am not very hopeful of this ending without me having to dig very deep into my own pockets.

thanks for all your time and help everyone

shelly

cahill wrote:

Thanks all.

Next door have told their insurers that their roof has caused my property damage and they have loss adjusters coming around on Wednesday to have a look.

Reading all these posts I am not very hopeful of this ending without me having to dig very deep into my own pockets.

thanks for all your time and help everyone

If your neighbour has put a claim in then their ins co "should" pay for your side to be done aswell. If that doesn't happen you can claim on your ins and they will claim the cost back from your neighbour. But don't do this till their side has been fixed (I *think* that if you have to do this and your co get the cost back from neighbour it won't be classed as a claim on your policy) Either way you shouldn't be out of pocket at all.


Good luck.

hardpressed

Not quite the same situation but when our neighbour had a burst pipe the water caused a lot of damage in our house, we claimed off our insurance who in turn claimed off theirs.

courtjester

It all depends on the *cause* of the damage, not where the water came from.

A burst pipe is generally an 'accident' - there is no blame attached so damage will be dealt with by the insurers of the property damaged and there is no claim against the owner of the property where the pipe burst.

Similarly, with water leaking through a neighbouring roof - unless there is *clear* evidence of long term failure to maintain (normally meaning that the neighbour has been notified of a problem and then done nothing about it, leading to more damage than should have occurred). Generally, there may be no liability on the neighbour's part.

In the long term, it would benefit if th structure could be modified to separate the areas so that such leakage could not re-occur.

cahill

There appears to be no way to resolve the problem unless the neighbour repairs their roof first, as my insurance will not repair his side or the junction as to where the water is entering my outbuilding from next door.

The neighbours loss adjuster came out on Wed and refused to accept that anything other than poor maintainence was to blame for the roofing problems. He seemed uninterested when I spoke to him that my neighbours (their insured) roof had caused significant damage to my property.

Still puzzled as to my next step.

I suppose I was banking on the neighbours insurance saving the day.

Astaroth

Do you have legal expenses on your home insurance? if you do speak to one of the solicitors on that part of your cover about how you can force your neighbours hand