Claiming on an expired building insurance policy

bus_man

I got a phone call from a group of lawyers 2 days ago. Basically i own a flat in another city which i rent out. My son lived in it whilst at university. Whilst he was there a neighbour below spoke to him briefly about a 6 inch water mark on her bathroom ceiling which transpired was coming from our bath overflow which was loose. After checked under our bath i made sure there were no other leaks and reattached the bath panel. It seemed that the original installer had not tightened it enough. That was in May 2011. I heard nothing more since. I had a policy for building / contents in place on the flat from april 2011 until april 2012. that policy has just expired now and basically the first contact i have had is from this solicitor demanding payment of £1800 to pay for the damage. Where do i stand ? I am at my wits end. I could have sorted this out much easier if they had contacted me earlier. Do i contact my present insurers or the past insurance company. The law firm want a letter in 30 days that i accept liability.

paddedjohn

Hes fishing, unless they can prove you were negligent they havnt got a leg to stand on.

Quentin

Send the letter (unanswered), and any others you get on to the insurer who covered the property at the time of the incident to deal with.

You have nothing to worry about - once the solicitor gets a reply from your insurer, then he will either give up the claim against you, or set about proving your negligence (but that will all be dealt with by the insurer).

bus_man

Thanks for the replies .Its been going around in my head all day. An accusation has been levied at us that the bath was allowed to overflow which was completely false and that the third party spoke to us about it again completely untrue as i have not spoken to them for about 3 years and they are 70 miles away. It was the overflow pipe which was not tightened up fully at the top allowing water to run down the side. this was immediately rectified. 2 sides to every story, i woulod never ever knowingly give myself hassle by flooding out a neighbour

paddedjohn

Don't say it wasn't tightened properly, say it came loose somehow.

mikey72

Say nothing, follow quentins advice.

lil.smartie

You paid a professional to fit it and had no reason to think his work was defective so you were not negligent so are not liable. As said let the insurance co deal with it but make sure they know the facts

We recently had a radiator leak and would not have been liable had any damage been done to our neighbours house as it was a failure not something we were negligent over.

Kate

forgotmyname

It vibrated loose from the vibrations caused by the loud music played from the flat below.