Do I have to pay this insurance excess?

hollowayians

Hello all, we own a flat we bought last year as a leasehold. Unfortunately not long after we moved in one of our pipes had a leak which ran into the flat downstairs. An insurance claim went through our management company to replace their whole ceiling (not required in my opinion - I have a feeling they were using it as an excuse to modernise their flat - I have pictures from below and above the ceiling to show it's in okay condition - no parts of the ceiling fell down). The management company are now asking us to pay the £650 excess for the insurance claim.

My question is - do we have to pay it or the investment company that owns the property downstairs? I'm not asking about ethics here, we're spent thousands soundproofing the floor between our flats of which they haven't contributed but benefitted, I'm just wondering if it's really down to us to pay for this. I don't think they'll accept this line of reasoning so I'm looking for a legal basis in order to go back to them with.

Thanks in advance.

Mungo76

It really depends on what it says on your contract, but in terms of fault or negligence, a leaking pipe (in domestic situations) is rarely caused by negligence.

Pipes burst, couplings get loose, whatever. You cannot be held liable for that in most cases.

dacouch

To clarify Mungo's post, assuming there is nothing in your lease / contract stating otherwise. Generally for you to be "Liable" you would need to have been "negligent".

For them to be successful in a court, they would to prove you were negligent in order for you to liable. A court would normally not find you negligent unless the pipe had leaked in the past and you had not taken any action