Water leak claim surprise

Alimcp

Hello,
Just posting as I have learnt something regarding buildings insurance claims. I own a flat that I let. My tennant noticed that the bedroom wall was cold and damp(external wall) so we had a builder/slater come to have a look in case there was a problem with roof/pointing. He told us the damp was from a leaking overflow pipe from the flat above which is also rented out. We informed the owner who after a couple of months had it fixed.
Here is where I got my surprise. Perhaps naively, as it turns out, I assumed that the flat above owner would be liable to cover the costs of drying out the wall and redecorating and also the fact that I had to reduce the rent as the bedroom was not fit to be slept in.
He refused and on contacting my own insurers I have been told that it is up to us to claim through them. I was pretty shocked that it will end up costing me for a problem not of my making. I have a £250.00 excess for water leaks on top of normal £100.00 excess so am in the process of deciding whether its worth claiming at all.
Have not claimed on insurance before so this has come as a surprise to me but in case others out there are as naive as me thought I would let you know.

InsideInsurance

There is nothing to stop you submitting court papers against either them or their insurers as per the above post but....

1) Against his insurers you would automatically lose, his insurers did nothing to cause damage to your property so you cannot sue them. You always sue the TP, they can chose to have their insurers respond and deal with it but it is the TP that you sue.

2) Against the TP you have a very low chance of success.

If you sue them you will have to prove they have been negligent. Negligence being doing something that a reasonable person wouldnt or failing to do something that a reasonable person would do.

In the cases of things like this you basically need to show that they knew it was leaking and did nothing about it.

By the sounds of your story, you didnt notice the overflow until a builder pointed it out and when you told the TP they had it fixed. On that basis it doesnt sound very hopeful for you.

mikey72

Two things here.
It took the op's neighbour a couple of months to fix it, so he may be liable for the increased damage caused.

And I'd argue the damage wasn't caused by a water leak as such. It was caused by water coming from outside, falling onto the property. Not a leak in the sense one of the pipes in the house had burst, or water had escaped from where it shouldn't have.
Or maybe the neighbour was negligent in having a system that would discharge water onto the op's property, even when it was working correctly?

bouncydog1

The flat above is rented out though, so surely it was the tenant's responsibility to inform the owner about the leaking overflow - there is usually something in the tenancy agreement about advising the landlord about maintenance issues.

So although the landlord delayed getting the pipe fixed, liability may lie with the tenant.

OP - is it worth seeing if you could get 30 mins free session with a legal adviser to see what they suggest?

Alimcp

Thank you for your interest and advice. I think we will submit our costs to the landlord of the flat above with a wee note to the effect that it has taken a couple of months to sort the leak and see what he comes up with.
Other than that I suspect that we will have to take the financial hit ourselves as seems that it is very difficult to prove negligence.
Our flat is let to students who I know and have been good tenants but I do need to have the flat sorted and looking good as my students who have lived there for 3 years are going and I shortly need to hold viewings for the next tenants. This cannot drag on with a damp and moldy bedroom.
I suppose this has been a learning experience and does make me wonder who benefits from insurance - no disrespect, but i think I should have been in insurance.
Thanks

InsideInsurance

You benefit from the insurance as it covers you for your losses net of the excess. Without insurance you would have to pay for all the amount in full yourselves.

If your neighbour is negligent or not has nothing to do with insurance but is to do with the Law of Torts, something that has existed a lot longer than any insurance policy.