Colleague's home flooded - responsible for neighbour's costs?

martin2345uk

Hi all,

A colleague of mine has had her house flooded by a leaking pipe in the utility room while she was away for a weekend...

She has come back to severe damage to her home, but worse, it's leaked into next door and caused damage to the flooring there too.

She is insured, but her neighbour is not, and the insurance company are saying they will not be covering the neighbour's damaged house.

Is my colleague now responsible for covering the costs of the repairs to the neighbour's home?

TonyMMM

Not unless she was negligent - e.g. she knew the pipe was leaking and did nothing about it.

The neighbour should have bought insurance.

martin2345uk

That's kind of what I was thinking. But negligence or otherwise is hard to prove isn't it? Would the onus be on her to prove she wasn't negligent or on the neighbour to prove she was?

DirectDebacle

Would the onus be on her to prove she wasn't negligent or on the neighbour to prove she was?

The neighbour would have to prove that any damage to their property was caused by the escape of water from your colleagues property onto theirs. Your colleague would have to prove that it wasn't.

A decent neighbour would want to put matters right asap if they had caused damage to a neighbours property, albeit unintentionally.

Alter_ego

I would look into why the insurance company is refusing to cover the damage to neighbour's property.

martin2345uk

Oh she does want to put it right, but the neighbour is saying its going to cost £7,000 which has shocked her a little!

Would you expect insurance companies to usually pay for such situations? I've never had to claim before (touch wood)

Torry_Quine

Alter_ego wrote: »

I would look into why the insurance company is refusing to cover the damage to neighbour's property.

If there was no reason to expect the leak and there is no negligence then the neighbour's property is not covered by the insurance. this is why everyone should have insurance.

ryder72

Your colleagues insurance covers only your colleagues house and has no liability to the neighbours property.

The neighbour will either have to claim of their own insurance. That insurer may then choose to recover their losses from your colleague (who in turn will pass it on to their insurer).

If the neighbour has no insurance, your colleague could pay for it voluntarily or the neighbour might have to go to court to claim losses. In either case, your colleagues insurer will not pay for any third party damage unless it can be proven that the leak originated from your colleagues house and caused the damage.

Think about this situation exactly as you might a car collision claim.

It sounds unfair but that's how it is unfortunately. Just goes to show why proper and adequate insurance cover is very important.

molerat

Could their actions be considered negligent for not turning the water off though ? I turn the water off when going on holiday because if there is a water leak the damage will be limited to the amount of water stored in the property, in my mind a sensible precaution to take.

Torry_Quine

molerat wrote: »

Could their actions be considered negligent for not turning the water off though ? I turn the water off when going on holiday because if there is a water leak the damage will be limited to the amount of water stored in the property, in my mind a sensible precaution to take.

It wouldn't be expected that going away for a weeend in summer that the water would be switched off.

macman

All house insurance covers 3rd party liability, but that doesn't mean that in this particular instance the insurers admit liability, since the leak could not have been predicted, and therefore was not presumably negligent.
Your colleague does not have to do anything. If her neighbour thinks she has a case, then her only course of action is to start her own civil action at her own expense (in the absence of any insurance). It's for her to prove, not for your colleague to disprove.
If she can't be bothered to 'afford' basic home insurance, then I doubt that she can afford to sue anyone.