advice needed please - claim for water damage

barrie-sw

My neighbour wants to claim against me rather than his contents policy for water damage caused by a leak from my flat, saying he is concerned it may affect his policy/premium in future. What can I do? Would his contents insurers claim back costs from my buildings insurers? I don't have contents cover.

Can anyone help me with some much needed advice, please???

Thanks in anticipation.

mara

Hi Barry,

I work for a insurance company and part of our job is to pursue claims against third parties. When deciding whether to pursue a third party, we have to establish if they were negligent.

In order for your neighbour to make a sucessful claim against you, he has to be able to prove you were negligent

In this case, it depends on what caused the leak and how long it's been going on for. If the leak is from a pipe behind a washing machine, and you were unware of the problem until your neighbour advised you of the leak, so long as you fixed the leak straight away he would have no claim.

If you were aware of the leak but took no action to fix it, or if it has been an ongoing problem, then he would have a claim against you.

Hope this is of some help, but if you are still worried, I would suggest speaking to your local CAB.

payless

is it actually contents that were damaged, or decoration- which would usually be under buildings element-
is the buildings a block policy ( via management / lease) anyway?

barrie-sw

Thanks to all for the advice given. Looks like I'm on a sticky wicket with this one, then.

telly-addict

If it is indeed your neighbour's contents that have been damaged, then he would probably be better off claiming on his own contents insurance and get the benefit of the standard "new for old" cover. If he claims against your liability insurance, he won't get new for old - merely indemnity, which means putting him back in the same position as before the accident. This can reduce the settlement amount.

Claiming against his own contents insurance should also be a heck of a lot quicker.

His insurers will try to reclaim against your insurers in any event (subject to the negligence arguments mentioned elsewhere), once the claim is settled.