Bathroom Leaking in Flat

eddddy

In law, you must act as a "reasonable person".

If water is leaking into the flat below immediately under your bathroom, you have to decide whether a "reasonable person" would assume that your plumbing is leaking.

And then decide what a "reasonable person" should do about it (e.g. break the tiles to get at the plumbing).

If your neighbour decides to sue you for damages, a court would decide whether you acted reasonably. If the court decides you didn't act reasonably, you'd lose the claim.

(If you think a "reasonable person" would assume that it's not your plumbing that's leaking, then you can do nothing and potentially be prepared to argue that in court.)

G_M

Pixie5740 wrote: »

R U 4 real?

This.

Are you on a wind up?

* how can the guy downstairs prove where the leak is coming from without access to your flat and plumbing?

* the various possible sources of the leak are:
- the roof. Highly unlikely as your flat would be totally flooded before it came through below
- pipework imbedded in the concrete floor. Highly unlikely to be pipes there
- coming through the external walls eg poor pointing - highly unlikely to come through the ceiling. there'd be damp walls
- bathroom above - errrr..... yes. That's the obvious source!

* the quickest, cheapest, most logical and common sense thing to do is ask the owner of the flat above to check their bathroom plumbing

* having been advised of the problem, if you ignore it you'll be legally liable for any further on-going damage (negligence in ignoring the issue). Prior to being told, you were not negligent so not liable for damage to his flat below

* the building insurance may not cover the plumbing problem, though probobably would cover consequential damage to the property - but not the contents in the flat below if water-damaged.

Finally - stop faffing about. You have a water leak. Investigate and fix it.

Pixie5740

Not sure what the text speak was about last night. I suspect it had something to do with Mesers Innis and Gunn.

anna42hmr

NeilCr wrote: »

Agree with stardust09.

I had water coming into my flat a number of years back. I went up to the flat above - they investigated and it turned out to be their shower tray. I am certainly glad they didn't pfaff around on a forum discussing the ins and outs of whether or not they should deal with it

Sometimes you have to do the right thing - and work out responsibility when it's sorted out

I also agree, i had a leak from the upstairs flat last year, into a wardrobe in my bedroom it turned out that seals on the water meter had failed. I am so glad that they acted quickly, the moment i let them know they immediately started looking for the source. Unbeknownst to myself and the flat above, the leak had been going on for some time, and eventually the water found its way out through my ceiling, into the built in wardrobe.

I would hate to have had a neighbour who just seemed to not be bothered. Especially as the longer it is left the more damage it would cause.

PS op please put yourself in their shoes, how would you feel if you had water coming in from above with no idea what was causing it and the likely source not being bothered at all and looking to everyone and everything else to sort it.

sheff6107

My builder caused a flood which went down into the two flats below. I (he) had to pay £500 excess for the buildings's insurance to fix all three flats. Contents damage was dealt with the three separate contents insurance policies.