Advice please Insurance claim letter sent to tenant?

GDB2222

I see that you've had some replies you like, but I think that you may actually be liable. In any case, pass it on to your LL, and hopefully his insurance will cover it.

You can't just let the bath overflow and expect not to be liable for the flood downstairs. As I said, hopefully the LL's insurance will cover this.

blackstar

GDB2222 said:

I see that you've had some replies you like, but I think that you may actually be liable. In any case, pass it on to your LL, and hopefully his insurance will cover it.

You can't just let the bath overflow and expect not to be liable for the flood downstairs. As I said, hopefully the LL's insurance will cover this.

GDB2222 said:

I see that you've had some replies you like, but I think that you may actually be liable. In any case, pass it on to your LL, and hopefully his insurance will cover it.

You can't just let the bath overflow and expect not to be liable for the flood downstairs. As I said, hopefully the LL's insurance will cover this.

If I am liable meaning I have to pay for the full £2,000 plus or just the excess the below neighbour paid? I do not have any insurance.

davilown

GDB2222 said:

I see that you've had some replies you like, but I think that you may actually be liable. In any case, pass it on to your LL, and hopefully his insurance will cover it.

You can't just let the bath overflow and expect not to be liable for the flood downstairs. As I said, hopefully the LL's insurance will cover this.

They haven’t said the bath overflowed, just that some water may have escaped as can happen normally when bathing.
this shouldn’t cause an issue if there wasn’t a big hole under the bath.
I’d be more interested to hear, if it had been happening for so long, why wasn’t it noticed sooner.

princeofpounds

Whether you are liable or not depends entirely on whether you were negligent or not. We simply can't tell from your description so far. For starters, having a hole in the floor under a bath is one thing, but it doesn't actually explain anything about where the water came from. In fact, even if there was no hole in the floor, there would normally be gaps in the floorboards that would allow water to penetrate (maybe not as quickly, but even so...) - it's not like impenetrable anti-flood defences are routinely installed under baths. So I don't think the hole has much to do with anything frankly, nor your landlord.

If you had left a bath to run over, and the water damaged the flat below - that may be negligence. If, for example, a mouse or rat had silently chewed through a plastic pipe leading from the outflow trap (hey, it happened to me once), then you would not know, and that would not be negligence.

The fact that you have received a letter before action of this nature doesn't mean much, except that they are considering a claim, and would like to receive some money in settlement (of course). It is cheap to send a letter, so it doesn't say much about the strength of their claim on its own.

The question for you is - do they have a sensible claim, and do you have a sensible defence? What do they really know about how the water escaped, and how negligent were you as the property owner? What would a court decide on the balance of probabilities (the standard to which civil cases are judged)? 

Only with answers to that can you decide on a way forward.

A_Lert

From experience, water sloshed over the side of a bath can leak through to the ceiling below if the bathroom floor is inadequately waterproof. IMHO the fault there lies not with the tenant having the bath but with the landlord who was told about the damaged flooring, should have fixed it, and didn't.

(In our case it's our own kitchen, so no neighbour issues, just some minor water damage to the ceiling.)

blackstar

princeofpounds said:

Whether you are liable or not depends entirely on whether you were negligent or not. We simply can't tell from your description so far. For starters, having a hole in the floor under a bath is one thing, but it doesn't actually explain anything about where the water came from. In fact, even if there was no hole in the floor, there would normally be gaps in the floorboards that would allow water to penetrate (maybe not as quickly, but even so...) - it's not like impenetrable anti-flood defences are routinely installed under baths. So I don't think the hole has much to do with anything frankly, nor your landlord.

If you had left a bath to run over, and the water damaged the flat below - that may be negligence. If, for example, a mouse or rat had silently chewed through a plastic pipe leading from the outflow trap (hey, it happened to me once), then you would not know, and that would not be negligence.

The fact that you have received a letter before action of this nature doesn't mean much, except that they are considering a claim, and would like to receive some money in settlement (of course). It is cheap to send a letter, so it doesn't say much about the strength of their claim on its own.

The question for you is - do they have a sensible claim, and do you have a sensible defence? What do they really know about how the water escaped, and how negligent were you as the property owner? What would a court decide on the balance of probabilities (the standard to which civil cases are judged)? 

Only with answers to that can you decide on a way forward.

Thanks,  how do I know if its a letter before action? As nothing in it says they will take any action potentially? And what action?
The letter says at the top "Letter of Claim"

Making a claim to the LLs insuruance company? Or a court claim? All I know is there was no flood at all, only thing is bath water wave may have gone over bath once or twice but to have caused £2,400 worth of damage?

blackstar

I do not understand why there would be a letter of Claim sent to me about this £2,400 as wouldn't the owner have had to have paid the excess fee so the excess fee would be the only thing I (if responsible) have to pay? Or is it that the homeowners insurance company who paid for the £2,400 for the work to be done are now coming after me for the £2,400 they have paid the homeowner for the work they have paid to be done? and if they do not recuperate their money they will consider a court claim?

[Deleted User]

The Davies group are not rent a threat as suggested above. They are claims handlers for lots of insurance companies. They have paid out for an escape of water damage to their insureds property below. They are now seeking to claim from the property the water originated from. 

I have this myself from my neighbours insurance company. I am the landlord and water escaped from my property. Funny enough the Davies group are the handlers of mine. Pretty rubbish they are too. I just passed the letter onto my insurance company to deal. Thats what your landlord would do. 

It will be for his insurance company to either admit liability and pay or decline liability and he pays ( as he was negligent with the big hole ) or you are negligent for allowing a bath to overflow. But its his problem right now. 

blackstar

Thanks Densol, from my point of view theres no way I feel it could have been £2,400 worth of damage when I couldnt even see any water on the floor from the bath. Maybe there had been some splashed over from the family member. 
So my neighbours insurance company have paid out and they have employed the Davies group to try and get their money back.
Please see attached letter, I have blanked out private details on letter.
Is this a letter before action? if it is, should it not say we intend to take court action if this is not resolved? or something to that effect?
So it could end up in court? I have passed this letter onto my landlord, but what if landlord does not do anything? or respond? 

[Deleted User]

Honestly - just ensure your landlord deals with it. He should have Insurance “Property owners liability” 
Thats what I have - it covers for damage to other people and property arising out of my house. 
The letter talks about maintaining your property - well its not your property is it ? Its his. 

However I cannot work out what you mean by a hole ?
In the bath or in the floor ?
Was the hole only evident when the bath panel was removed ? Or was there a big hole that water could easily seep through and was easily seen by anyone ? 

Try not to stress about it. I received a similar letter on Friday. It played on my mind a bit - but its for my ( rather awful ) insurance company to deal with.
i didnt acknowledge it - as they hate you meddling.