No contents Insurance - renting

dellthebomb

Hello guys, new to the forum and all that but am at a loss and need some advice.

We are a renting couple in a old victorian house with 4 floors, we are on level 1 (1 below us, 2 above)

Couple upstairs left the property two weeks ago, on the day of leaving they did an inventory check and had the property cleaned by a company recommended by their landlady. I come home in the evening to a water flooded living room, no one upstairs as they had left earlier that day, called around eventually got hold of the landlady's mother who lived local (the landlady has moved to Australia) she comes out we eventually get the water leak stopped, (it is coming from a washing machine upstairs the pipe has been knocked or moved resulting in the flood)
The Mother says she will send her daughters Australian details the next day in case of any problems.

It comes to light in the morning we have two expensive macbook pro's which have been damaged in the water. (2.5k) No contents insurance.

I call the Mother and tell her she promises to send us the details of her daughter but then closes shop and never does and never replies to calls or texts.

We get the Australian landladys details from the old tenant as we had a friendship with him, we email her asking for some resolve she doesn't respond, she then responds a week later saying that she never gave permission to her details being passed on and do not contact her ever again, contact the cleaning company (those details were provided by the ex tenant to us) We contact the company by email but no response (yet)

We have no contents insurance but the thing is do we have a claim with the landlady? With the cleaning company? Our own Landlady has property insurance which will cover the water damage to the actual house (and there is some) But no contents insurance.

Guess it's kind of our fault as we have no insurance but can't believe the nerve of the landlady with no empathy etc, the couple moved out and she has new tenants in two days later, I have tried to raise the point to her that had I not come home that evening and the ceiling had collapsed she would have had the new tenants delayed, and potentially caused her major problems with her own place.

Okydoky25

I could be wrong but if the Landlord does not provide an address for the purpose of notices either her own or a Letting Agent you are within your rights to withhold (withhold not spend keep money aside) until this is rectified.

Is your deposit protected?

theartfullodger

Sorry I though you were referring to landlord of property upstairs. Which landlord are you talking about, please??

notanewuser

Okydoky25 wrote: »

I could be wrong but if the Landlord does not provide an address for the purpose of notices either her own or a Letting Agent you are within your rights to withhold (withhold not spend keep money aside) until this is rectified.

Is your deposit protected?

The OP isn't complaining about their own landlord...............

notanewuser

It is unlikely that the other landlady's insurance will cover this. Contents insurance is a few ££s each month (I used to pay £4ish when renting a flat). If you're going to keep expensive kit in your flat it's worth a few ££s to protect it. Expensive lesson learned.

dellthebomb

Hi guys

Thanks for the replies, yes our landlady is fine, is getting the house redecorated but cannot do anything about our contents, it's the attitude of the landlady upstairs who is in Australia, the leak started up there and she has no damage so has washed her hands of us.

I'm just wondering on the liabilty aspect who is responsible.
The cleaning company or the landlady upstairs.. Is there even a case.

We literally live a stones throw from a police station and the laptops were the only valuable items in the house.. I guess we'll have to just put it down to lesson learned

LEJC

dellthebomb wrote: »

We literally live a stones throw from a police station

please dont think that this gives you immunity from requiring contents cover!

ValHaller

notanewuser wrote: »

It is unlikely that the other landlady's insurance will cover this. Contents insurance is a few ££s each month (I used to pay £4ish when renting a flat). If you're going to keep expensive kit in your flat it's worth a few ££s to protect it. Expensive lesson learned.

Well. either the former tenants of the flat above or their Landlord are liable. It is damage caused by a nuisance from that flat.

The question of insurance is totally irrelevant to who is liable - if they have insurance, it just settles the question of how they pay. I suggest going to the Land Reg and getting the owners details and going through the process

• letter
• letter before action
• court claim
• win by default
• place a charge on the property

outlining where this might go via the informal channels - especially the charge on the property may produce a result.

notanewuser

dellthebomb wrote: »

Hi guys

Thanks for the replies, yes our landlady is fine, is getting the house redecorated but cannot do anything about our contents, it's the attitude of the landlady upstairs who is in Australia, the leak started up there and she has no damage so has washed her hands of us.

I'm just wondering on the liabilty aspect who is responsible.
The cleaning company or the landlady upstairs.. Is there even a case.

We literally live a stones throw from a police station and the laptops were the only valuable items in the house.. I guess we'll have to just put it down to lesson learned

As you've been advised in your other (Duplicate) thread, you'd need to prove negligence by somebody else. You can't. It's a civil matter, so the police couldn't do anything.

For flip's sake get some contents insurance in place.

Mallotum_X

ValHaller wrote: »

Well. either the former tenants of the flat above or their Landlord are liable. It is damage caused by a nuisance from that flat.

The question of insurance is totally irrelevant to who is liable - if they have insurance, it just settles the question of how they pay. I suggest going to the Land Reg and getting the owners details and going through the process

• letter
• letter before action
• court claim
• win by default
• place a charge on the property

outlining where this might go via the informal channels - especially the charge on the property may produce a result.

Agreed this is best approach, but get insurance from now on.

bouicca21

As someone who also recently had water coming through the ceiling from the flat upstairs, I had assumed that if it caused damage to my belongings (which fortunately it didn't) that it would be a consequential loss that ought to be remedied by the owner of the upstairs flat. They are paying to repaint the ceiling, which is also consequential damage, so why not for other damage?