Advice please Insurance claim letter sent to tenant?

blackstar

Hello All,

Hoping for some advice please.
I am a tenant and over 1 year ago my neighbour below claimed water had come from his bathroom ceiling. A family member was having a bath at time but noticed no flooding, maybe water had gone over bath and down through a corner of the bath where there was a gap for pipes, only thing I can think of, if it did indeed happen.
The homeowner below informed their insurance company and had a whole new ceiling and walls put repaired/replaced. Apparently walls were moist also. When workmen were doing work they noticed a huge hole under middle of bath and said "this where where the water was escaping from". Apparently, this hole was about 1 1/2 feet in diameter and probably left like this from years ago when whoever was doing work there left it like this in order to get to pipes and never sealed it up.

So anyhow landlord was informed ofcourse and had hole sealed up, never had any issues after this.

Now, myself as the tenant got a letter today from the homeowners (neighbour below) insurance company today which stated: (letter was in our name, not landlords name)
(We had passed this onto to landlord already)
Please can I get advice on what to do?  What if landlord does not respond and neither do I within the 21 days? I am very stressed..
I have no idea about home insurance? Can anyone tell me what the potential outcomes of this are? Ie landlord ignores letter and homeowners insurance company just pay up and homeowner pay the excess or insurance company take landlord to court to try and get money back? landlord gives his insurance company the information and the two insurance companys come to a agreement? could landlords company or neighbours insurance company come after us, the tenants for some of the money? if so, and we do not have it, could they take us to court?
Do this mean from the letter below that the neighbours insurance company have already paid for this work to be done? I am confused about this? I honestly think they have been ripped off and paid too much for this repair, plus the moisture could in the walls could have been from high moisture in their bathroom. Not sure how they could prove every part of the work the had done was in a direct result of that particular time?

Letter of Claim

We are instructed by the xxx on behalf of their client, to peruse a claim against you to recover our clients losses arising from the accident on xxx date We set out the facts below which give rise to your legal liability.

FACTS: ON XXX YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS WEERE USING THE BATH IN YOUR PROPERTY
WATER CAME POURING THROUGH THE CEILING INTO OUR INSUREDS PROPERTY CAUSING SIGNIGICANT DAMAGE TO OUR INSURCED CEILINGS FOR WHICH YOU ARE LIABLE.
IT LATER TRANSPIRED THERE WAS A LARGE HOLE IN THE FLLOR AT THE MIDDLE OF YOUR BATH AND THIS IS WHERE THE WATER WAS ESCPAING FROM

LIABILITY:

YOU FAILED TO ENSURE THAT YOUR PROPERTY WAS MAINRAINED TO A STANDARD TO PREVENT AN ESPCAPE OF WATER
YOU FAILED TO MITIGATE THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE ESCPATE OF WATER TO A NEIGHBOURING PROPERTY
YOU FAILED IN YOUR DUTY OF CARE TO THE OCCUPANT OF THE NEIGHBOURING PROPERTY

LOSS:

OUR CLIENTS' LOSSES ARISING FROM THIS INCIDENT ARE YET TO BE FINALISED BUT WE ARE CURRE TLY HOLDING A RESERVE OF £2,400
THIS MAY NOT REPRESENT THE FINAL VALUE OF THE CLAIM BUT IS INTENDED AS AN INDICATION. DOCUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THE LOSS WILL FOLLOW ONCE THE CLAIM IS CONCLUDED.

DEMANDS:
PLEASE SUPPLY US WITH YOUR ADMISSION OF LIABILITY FOR OUR CLIENTS' LOSSES WITHIN TWENTY-ONE DAYS OF RECEIPT OF THIS LETTER. ALTERNATIVLY, YOU MAY WISH TO PASS THIS MATTER ONTO YOUR INSURERS TO DEAL WITH THIS MATTER ON YOUR BEHALF.

WE WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU

PARALEGAL

TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT

hippocrates1

Not your floor not your problem. 

GHolmesAdmin

Give it to your landlord, it doesn't look very professional or convincing to me, but not your problem either way.

blackstar

hippocrates1 said:

Not your floor not your problem. 

Thanks, what if I do not respond to this letter within 21 days? and neither does landlord? Should I call this insurance company and tell them you keep mentioning in this letter "your property" but it is not our property or our floor. We do not own this property.

justworriedabit

OP
Even the letter you have received is blighted with spelling mistakes, etc.
Bottom line is that the LL is responsible.  However, if you have noted the problem and had not reported it in a timely fashion then you could become laible but you have said you was not aware. The thing with water leaking, diffult to know at times until you can see the dmamage. The quaility of the letter, I may be wrong but it could be a sick joke carried out by a third party that either dislikes you or the people below or both.

All in all from what you said, not your problem - jsut keep on sending the letters to the LL and keep a record

GHolmesAdmin

 

Thanks, what if I do not respond to this letter within 21 days? and neither does landlord? Should I call this insurance company and tell them you keep mentioning in this letter "your property" but it is not our property or our floor. We do not own this property.

You don't need to do anything but pass it to the landlord. Not your problem, and not a proper letter either.

A_Lert

Pass the letter onto your landlord. As mentioned, maintenance is primarily the landlord's responsibility. Do not accept liability.

Optionally, reply to the letter informing them you are a tenant under a (insert tenancy type, probably Assured Shorthold Tenancy).

GHolmesAdmin

I wouldn't respond to it at all it is clearly a try on.

blackstar

Thanks, not sure if I can write this but letter was from davies-group.com 
We are a specialist professional services and technology firm, working in partnership with leading insurance, highly regulated and global businesses.

The spelling mistakes were just my typos, but all words were theirs. 

GHolmesAdmin

It's just a rent-a-threat letter, the sort of thing a dodgy debt collection agency would send out when they know they have no claim.There is no mention of what they intend to do if you are not daft enough to respond. Give it to your landlord. Not repeating myself on this thread again

blackstar

GHolmesAdmin said:

It's just a rent-a-threat letter, the sort of thing a dodgy debt collection agency would send out when they know they have no claim.There is no mention of what they intend to do if you are not daft enough to respond. Give it to your landlord. Not repeating myself on this thread again

Thank you Gholmes, no need to repeat yourself on this, a seperate question if its ok? Is this is what has probably happened? Homeowner belows insurance company have paid for the repair, homeowner has paid the excess, homeowners insurance company have passed this onto a rent-a-threat company, and rent-a-threat company have sent out a rent-a-threat letter?