Posessions damaged by disrepair - claim current retail or used age value

Wonder312

Hello

Great to join this and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

We rent a flat and our ceiling has come in our living down bring with plaster and masonry which covered our possessions (sofa, tv, laptops, xbox etc) with large lumps of rock and very fine masonry dust. About an inch or so deep in places.

We had advised our landlord about a problem with the ceiling sometime ago but no action was ever taken.

Our landlord is refusing to cover the damage to our possessions and we did not get contents insurance. I was out of work when we moved in. So we will need to claim in court if we cant get our landlord to pay up now.

I am going to make claim against my landlord and for the damage and an writing a letter as suggested by the CAB. However, I am unsure about how to quantify what I should be claiming for e.g.

1) Macbook Pro - bought new 1 year ago for £1550. Should I first try and see if it's repairable?
If its broken beyon repair should I claim £1550 or say £1400 if that's the current value based on age?
2) 3D TV - bought this in 2010 for £1000 so probably not worth much now second hand although they dont make 3D tvs anymore - should I claim £1000, £300 if thats the current market value of an 8 year old tv or the cost of obtaining something broadly equivalent now e.g. £799
3) Our sofa looks like it could be done for- the patches of fine plaster powder are very heavily engrained in the sofa material and the covers are only removable on the cushions. Should we attempt to have it cleaned first by a professional or claim for a new one?
4) Our landlord left us to do all the cleaning up of the rubble to get out our possessions before the repair works start - because they only gave us a day to do this we did. Should we charge for having to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. It would be good to know what you did and what happened if you had took it court.

Despite the horror of the last few days we have been nothing but impressed by the kindness of strangers. It has kept us going. We look forward to being able to pay if forward.

Thank you and best

Wonder312

Finchy2018

Does your contents insurance not cover this?

AnotherJoe

Claim full replacement price and let them try to argue you down.
Good luck.

diggingdude

All those expensive possessions and you didn't get contents insurance? You do need to prioritise when you are spending that much on electronics

HampshireH

Your responsible for insuring your items. I'm surprised this isnt alluded to in your tenancy agreement.

What you may/may not be successful in claiming is likely to depend on what actually happened and what the issue was. What you previoulsy reported, its relevance, when you did it and the response.

You couldnt have been that concerned that the ceiling would fall in else you wouldn't have left your sofa etc underneath it. Not saying it's right but perhaps your LL also got this impression from you.

CAB are using "disrepair claims" as the new go to at the moment. I hope they have outlined all the associated costs to you rather than giving you what you wanted to hear.

AdrianC

Anything that's actually been broken by falling chunks of plaster (not "lumps of rock") is obviously broken, sure, but plaster dust will just wipe off. It'll come off simply with hoovering cloth, and wiping leather or hard surfaces with a damp cloth.


And, no, you do not get new-for-old unless you specifically paid for that on your home insurance. You had an 8yo outdated-tech TV, you get the current value of an 8yo outdated-tech TV. "Betterment" is the phrase you want to be googling.

davidmcn

As above, it's not clear that you've established any liability by the landlord. If it was obvious that the ceiling was about to collapse, why had you left all your stuff under it?

But assuming you can establish liability, what you're entitled to is to be put back into the position you were i.e. with a bunch of undamaged but used possessions.

societys_child

Macbook Pro - bought new 1 year ago for £1550

we did not get contents insurance

Priorities . .

Cakeguts

Our ceiling came down in a bedroom there were lumps of plaster and dust everywhere. We picked up the big bits and went round with the hoover and picked up the rest. It isn't rock and masonary dust that comes down it is just hard plaster. Or plasterboard if that is what the ceiling was made out of.



If you don't have contents insurance then you have to make sure that anything you buy is not so expensive that you can't easily replace it if you have an accident with it.

dimbo61

Did you inform the Landlord about the problems with the flat in writing ? Or better still email with him responding to you ?

pinkshoes

Wonder312 wrote: »

Hello

Great to join this and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

We rent a flat and our ceiling has come in our living down bring with plaster and masonry which covered our possessions (sofa, tv, laptops, xbox etc) with large lumps of rock and very fine masonry dust. About an inch or so deep in places.

We had advised our landlord about a problem with the ceiling sometime ago but no action was ever taken.

Our landlord is refusing to cover the damage to our possessions and we did not get contents insurance. I was out of work when we moved in. So we will need to claim in court if we cant get our landlord to pay up now.

I am going to make claim against my landlord and for the damage and an writing a letter as suggested by the CAB. However, I am unsure about how to quantify what I should be claiming for e.g.

1) Macbook Pro - bought new 1 year ago for £1550. Should I first try and see if it's repairable?
If its broken beyon repair should I claim £1550 or say £1400 if that's the current value based on age?
2) 3D TV - bought this in 2010 for £1000 so probably not worth much now second hand although they dont make 3D tvs anymore - should I claim £1000, £300 if thats the current market value of an 8 year old tv or the cost of obtaining something broadly equivalent now e.g. £799
3) Our sofa looks like it could be done for- the patches of fine plaster powder are very heavily engrained in the sofa material and the covers are only removable on the cushions. Should we attempt to have it cleaned first by a professional or claim for a new one?
4) Our landlord left us to do all the cleaning up of the rubble to get out our possessions before the repair works start - because they only gave us a day to do this we did. Should we charge for having to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. It would be good to know what you did and what happened if you had took it court.

Despite the horror of the last few days we have been nothing but impressed by the kindness of strangers. It has kept us going. We look forward to being able to pay if forward.

Thank you and best

Wonder312

To claim your losses from the landlord you will need to prove wilful negligence on the landlord's behalf. Otherwise you are responsible for your own losses. This is what contents insurance is for. It is surprisingly cheap.

How did you inform your landlord of the problem? In writing? What did you tell him exactly? WHEN did you inform him? How many times did you contact him?

A friend had her ceiling collapse. She had informed her LL of a damp patch that had appeared on her ceiling a few weeks before, but there was no way they could have know this would lead to the ceiling falling in. Her contents insurance covered her scratched TV.

The LL did however have to pay all her moving costs and agreed to end the tenancy early due to the problem.

If it is deemed that your LL is liable, you claim for the current value to replace it.