Leak from my flat has damaged neighbour's ceiling

spinno64

Afternoon all

This is primarily a question about my building’s insurance so I assume this is the right board for it. Apologies if not.

A week ago I was told by the owner of the flat below mine that water was coming through their bathroom ceiling. I visited the tenant that rents the flat and saw the bathroom: there was evidence of damp on the ceiling and it looks like the water had been coming in from around the light on at least one evening.

I immediately investigated what could have been causing the leak in our bathroom. We only moved in to the property 5 months ago and we’ve generally left the bathroom to be as it didn’t appear to need any work. I removed the flooring and saw that the floor boards below were wet. I immediately called a plumber who sent someone out at 8am the next morning. They fixed the issue – the leak was coming from the toilet.

I contacted Aviva asking what do I do with regards to the damage to the bathroom below. Initially they told me to pass my policy number to the owners and they could claim on my policy but I’d have to pay £100 excess. I put everything into a letter and sent it to the owners detailing when I became aware of the incident and when I fixed it.

They contacted me yesterday saying that we should just sort it out outside of the insurance, as they think they can repair the damage for less than £100 anyway. I spoke to Aviva today for advice, and this time they said that I shouldn’t have to pay for anything as I remedied the problem as soon as I became aware of it. Since the leak would have been happening for months (the renter said it first appeared around January) they should have told us then that something was amiss.

I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve got no problem paying for the repair if it’s under £100 – frankly that isn’t a lot of money to me. I just want to make sure that, if I do, they don't come back at a later date and try to get more out of us.

Tl;dr Aviva are now saying that I shouldn’t pay for damage to a neighbours ceiling as it doesn't sound like a case of negligence (note: they haven’t investigated the issue, they’re just going on what I said over the phone) Should I just pay anyway?

kingstreet

Aviva is correct.

There is no negligence on your part (as you rectified the issue as soon as you were informed of it) so you have no liability.

How you deal from here is entirely up to you. If you feel like contributing, that's your call...

Torry_Quine

If you weren't negligent then legally you aren't liable. whether you fell morally obliged is down to you.

spinno64

Nice and succinct. Thank you both, that's good to know.