Nightmare neighbour and insurance claim

FreddieAlfi

Hello, we have a bit of a situation with our elderly neighbour and me and my husband got to the point of being just totally fed up and don't know what to do so would appreciate opinion of others.

So our upstairs neighbour had a leak and that caused damage to our ensuite. We were away when it happened and when came home found stains and blistered paint on the ceiling, and everything covered in dry paint streaks and powdery stuff plus water damage on our bathroom cabinets.

We took photos, contacted the neighbour who admitted that he did have a leak. However after visiting us he became quite unreasonable and difficult, flooding us with message after message, with various demands (copies of our IDs, our water usage and proof we were not home). He threatened that he would report us to the police for fraud.... My husband and I thought this was completely ridiculous. We thought we don't need this harassment in our lives and so said we would sort it out ourselves and pay for the excess.

We made a claim through the buildings insurance, however, we didn't realise is that if we do claim through the insurance it might mean that the service fee for all neighbours could raise because of the claim.

The management company asked if we'd be willing to sort it out with the neighbour who they say would be happy to cooperate; however, we already tried this route and it went badly. He threatened us again very recently and we just don't want to deal with this guy again so that's not really an option for us.

What would you do in our situation, would you claim on the insurance or would you pay for the damages yourself?

DullGreyGuy

This sounds like a one off event so unless he says he was in the bath practicing his shot put and accidentally split the bath then it doesn't sound like he has been negligent and so would have no liability for the damages caused to your property. As such it would be up to you if you wanted to pay for your damages yourself of claim off the buildings insurance which will impact everyone's service charges.

For you to have a claim against him you'd typically have to either have a one off act of stupidity as per the suggestion above or have the fact that the leak has been ongoing for ages, you've complained to him before about it and whilst he's had ample time to fix it no attempt had been made... even then you would only be looking at the damage caused after the time he had time to fix the leak.

This sort of thing is exactly why people buy insurance because escape of water etc is generally not anyone's fault.

jlfrs01

Things like this happen all the time and it isn't necessarily that anyone is to blame either. If this neighbour is being objectionable and you don't want to engage then an insurance claim is the obvious answer and I'd not worry about what neighbours would say - insurance goes up every year and I very much doubt details of the claim will be listed on the management company's annual financial statement, etc. 

BJV

To be honest, he sounds a bit strange.

In your position, if it were just a small job that is not expensive to save the hassle and problems, I would just pay for it myself and give the nasty neighbour a wide berth. Sounds like you don't need someone like him in your life. 

If it is a big job or will end up costing a lot then you will have to make a claim. After all that is what insurance is for. Not nice when the damage was not caused by anything you did. 

Not so sure about your house insurance but I know that some policies will not pay for say the split bath but would pay for consequential damage. I,e the damage to your bathroom. 

FreddieAlfi

DullGreyGuy said:

This sounds like a one off event so unless he says he was in the bath practicing his shot put and accidentally split the bath then it doesn't sound like he has been negligent and so would have no liability for the damages caused to your property. As such it would be up to you if you wanted to pay for your damages yourself of claim off the buildings insurance which will impact everyone's service charges.

For you to have a claim against him you'd typically have to either have a one off act of stupidity as per the suggestion above or have the fact that the leak has been ongoing for ages, you've complained to him before about it and whilst he's had ample time to fix it no attempt had been made... even then you would only be looking at the damage caused after the time he had time to fix the leak.

This sort of thing is exactly why people buy insurance because escape of water etc is generally not anyone's fault.

Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply. The leak was from his washing machine - it broke down. He had had problems with it before but this was the first time the water leaked into our flat. Not sure if it changes things in any way?

[Deleted User]

Go for insurance. You shouldn't have to pay for his bad attitude.

DullGreyGuy

FreddieAlfi said:

DullGreyGuy said:

This sounds like a one off event so unless he says he was in the bath practicing his shot put and accidentally split the bath then it doesn't sound like he has been negligent and so would have no liability for the damages caused to your property. As such it would be up to you if you wanted to pay for your damages yourself of claim off the buildings insurance which will impact everyone's service charges.

For you to have a claim against him you'd typically have to either have a one off act of stupidity as per the suggestion above or have the fact that the leak has been ongoing for ages, you've complained to him before about it and whilst he's had ample time to fix it no attempt had been made... even then you would only be looking at the damage caused after the time he had time to fix the leak.

This sort of thing is exactly why people buy insurance because escape of water etc is generally not anyone's fault.

Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply. The leak was from his washing machine - it broke down. He had had problems with it before but this was the first time the water leaked into our flat. Not sure if it changes things in any way?

You would have to show he reasonably would have known it was going to leak and did nothing about it.... very hard to prove on the first time something leaks unless they admit the accident cut through the pipe or such before using it.