What to do

ridingtherails

Hello all

The waste pipe under my kitchen sink came apart yesterday, and my wife didn't notice, so she ran 2 wash loads through the washing machine before the downstairs neighbour came knocking. There is damage to her walls below us, her boiler stopped working and  there was water dripping down from her light fixture in her kitchen directly below ours. 
I have contents insurance but as our flats are leasehold, we cannot have buildings insurance as the freeholder has this in place already. I already offered to pay for her boiler to be restored, as it is winter and nobody should be without heating. But downstairs believes that all work should be covered on my contents insurance and my insurer disagrees, and won't entertain anything outside the four walls of my flat. I don't know what to do. I don't want to dig my heels in and be a difficult neighbour, but if my insurer wont pay they I don't know what more I can do. and i also don't want her to claim for miriad other things not actually damaged by the leak.
HELP!!!

Aretnap

Your contents insurance will come with liability cover that will pay for damage to her flat if and only if you are legally required to pay for it. To be required to pay for the damage, it would have to be the result of negligence on the part of you or your wife. Negligence means failing to take the level of care that would be expected of a reasonable person. If the leak was not obvious at the time your wife put the washing machine in, it's not easy to see how she could be seen to have been negligent. 

Unfortunately most people don't understand basic legal principles and think that because they did nothing wrong, someone else should have to pay for the damage to their property. What your neighbour is missing is that you did nothing wrong either - so it would not be fair to hold you liable for perhaps thousands of pounds worth of damage that you could not realistically have done anything to prevent. 

Damage to the walls and fabric of your neighbours flat will be covered by the freeholder's buildings insurance policy, regardless of who was to blame for the leak. Damage to the neighbours contents she'll have to claim for on her own contents insurance (I presume she does have contents insurance?) That way, I f her insurers (who are the professionals in all this) think that there's a case to be made for holding your wife to blame, they can pursue the matter with your own insurers. And she'll get her damage repaired in the meantime. 

Yes it's annoying that she'll have to make a claim on her policy for something that wasn't her fault - but she could make the same complaint about having to make a claim for a burglary, or a fire that wasn't her fault, or a flood/storm that wasn't her fault... in fact, most of the things that she might claim for on her contents insurance.