My house flooded and my neighbour is demanding money for damages to his home.

aliby21

OP  your neighbour needs to claim on their own house insurance.  You are not legally liable unless you have been negligent (so not if it was accidental).  As Doodling said in an earlier post

https://www.yourmoney.com/insurance/help-neighbours-damaged-property-rights/

kingstreet

This is a regular issue on the Insurance forum. You are only liable for damage to a neighbour's property if, for example, you fail to remedy a leak which after it being reported to you causes water damage to the neighbour.

A few years ago, a property nearby was struck by lightning and we sustained damage. We made a claim on our cover, not our neighbour's.

user1977

Keep_pedalling said:

theartfullodger said:

You know your place flooded:  Neighbour states his has been affected: (? agree it's been affected? ) .  Ignoring the amounts being demand, if next door impacted then YOU ARE LIABLE.  

A home-owner may or may not have insurance (no legal requirement, albeit an owner would be mad not to have insurance).  If you have insurance engage your insurance company in conversation & discuss the matter. 

You are only liable if you have been negligent in some way such as ignoring a slow leak prior to the event and even that would be hard to prove. If the neighbour has insurance then he claims from them if he doesn’t then he is an idiot. If he tries to claim off the OP then they should simply forward any claim to their insurance company and inform the neighbour that is what they have done and that should be the only response they give.

And even if the OP is certain they're not actually liable, it's best to let the insurers tell the neighbours that - that is generally a condition of your policy, the insurers don't want to step in after you've already engaged in correspondence with the third party (and potentially put your foot in it somehow).

diystarter7

kingstreet said:

This is a regular issue on the Insurance forum. You are only liable for damage to a neighbour's property if, for example, you fail to remedy a leak which after it being reported to you causes water damage to the neighbour.

A few years ago, a property nearby was struck by lightning and we sustained damage. We made a claim on our cover, not our neighbour's.

Hi

So to be clear, lets say the OP is insured as agreed I think. But next door is not. Lets safely assume by what is said the OP was not negilent -  how does next door get damage repaired who pays for it etc

I'm guess this will then be the OP's inxurance co?

Thanks

Gavin83

dannim12345 said:

That was insurance is for but the costs he is trying to claim seem excessive to say the least.  Assuming it was a leak from the tank & then stopped once it was empty (and didn’t run for a long time), damage can’t be much and will dry out. 

If it was just the contents of the tank I'm not sure if would be enough to leak through to the neighbours house. You're talking about a bath full of water here. It likely wouldn't even cause that much damage to the OP's house.

I think it's more likely the tank continued to fill from the mains and therefore considerably more water leaked out. If that's the case I think you could certainly argue the OP was negligent by leaving the house empty for a period of time and not turning off the mains water.

In all honesty morally I think the neighbour should be claiming from his insurance and the OP should be paying any excess. Were this to go to court and the judge ruled negligence that would almost certainly be the ruling. This does however get far more complicated if the neighbour doesn't have insurance.

However I'd question this with your insurance too.

Keep_pedalling

diystarter7 said:

kingstreet said:

This is a regular issue on the Insurance forum. You are only liable for damage to a neighbour's property if, for example, you fail to remedy a leak which after it being reported to you causes water damage to the neighbour.

A few years ago, a property nearby was struck by lightning and we sustained damage. We made a claim on our cover, not our neighbour's.

Hi

So to be clear, lets say the OP is insured as agreed I think. But next door is not. Lets safely assume by what is said the OP was not negilent -  how does next door get damage repaired who pays for it etc

I'm guess this will then be the OP's inxurance co?

Thanks

They pay for it themselves or leave it as it is. 

eddddy

diystarter7 said:

So to be clear, lets say the OP is insured as agreed I think. But next door is not. Lets safely assume by what is said the OP was not negilent -  how does next door get damage repaired who pays for it etc

If the next door neighbour's property is damaged - they have 2 main choices:

• The next door neighbour can pay to fix the damage to their own property
• The next door neighbour can decide to make an insurance claim on their own policy to pay for the damage - if they have relevant insurance cover

If the next door neighbour has no insurance cover - they have no choice except paying for the repairs themselves. 


Edit to add...

It's the same as if the neighbour's house was damaged in another way. For example, a tree fell on it.

The neighbour could pay for the repairs,
or the neighbour could claim on their own insurance.
 

kingstreet

diystarter7 said:

kingstreet said:

This is a regular issue on the Insurance forum. You are only liable for damage to a neighbour's property if, for example, you fail to remedy a leak which after it being reported to you causes water damage to the neighbour.

A few years ago, a property nearby was struck by lightning and we sustained damage. We made a claim on our cover, not our neighbour's.

Hi

So to be clear, lets say the OP is insured as agreed I think. But next door is not. Lets safely assume by what is said the OP was not negilent -  how does next door get damage repaired who pays for it etc

I'm guess this will then be the OP's inxurance co?

Thanks

It's entirely the neighbour's problem unless he had reported the issue to the OP previously and the OP didn't do anything to rectify it.

pickledonionspaceraider

I  would say do not do your next door neighbour dirty - if you can help solve this amicably - then DO SO

Brie

We had a similar situation where our neighbour (in the attached semi) claimed there was water damage to his property due to our roof leaking.  I expressed surprise at this as I couldn't see where this leak was and suggested that a person would need to examine things in their property.  This was not the answer they wanted and kept insisting that we MUST get our roof fixed and that we MUST pay for their damages.  They then got some chap whom they paid £100 to go up onto the roof and spread concrete where the roofs joined to prevent further leaks and wanted me to pay for that.  That's the only time I suspected that they actually did have a leak but still there was no proof it was due to a fault on our side.   

They moved a while later and the new owner (in the building trade) asked if we minded an adjustment to the eaves trough as it was bowing in the middle rather than flowing down to their side drain as it was meant to.  This was a result of a previous owner having new guttering put in and it not being installed correct to allow proper draining - net result water accumulating at the point where the houses were joined and soaking into their side mucking up the plaster in their front bedroom.