Leakage - Who is liable

deepam

Hi,

I have a rental flat with tenants in it. There was a leakage in the bathroom which damaged the flat below.

I want to understand who is responsible for the repairs and the contents of the flat below? What insurance do the repairs to the 1) walls and ceiling 2) contents come under?

Thank you

doodling

Hi,

Was anyone negligent?

If the answer to that is no then no-one is liable and each party covers their own losses (potentially through insurance).

deepam

Thanks for replying so quickly.

It's no one's fault. The plumber found it under the bath and I got the plumber to fix it the same day.

All owners pay building insurance. Does this mean the flat below need to claim through buildings insurance? Does this mean the excess should be paid by them? 

eddddy

deepam said:

All owners pay building insurance. Does this mean the flat below need to claim through buildings insurance? 

Can you clarify?  Do you mean the freeholder arranges buildings insurance - and splits the costs amongst the leaseholders? (That's the case with most, but not all, flats.)

If so, the leaseholder(s) with damaged flat(s) have to ask the freeholder to make an insurance claim.

deepam said:

 Does this mean the excess should be paid by them? 

Firstly, the excess for escape of water in flats can be very high - £500, or £1000 or even more.

Making a claim for escape of water could cause premiums to rocket next year. So the leaseholder should decide whether it's worth claiming. (And the freeholder might try to deter them from claiming, to stop future premiums rocketing.)


Regarding who should pay the excess - the options are:

• either the freeholder pays (from service charge funds)
• or the leaseholder(s) with the damaged flat(s) pay

A few more modern leases will explicitly say who should pay the excess - so that's easy


Otherwise, it's the type of argument that can end up at a tribunal. And sometimes tribunals decide that the freeholder has to pay the excess (from service charge funds), and sometimes they decide that the leaseholder(s) have to pay.

deepam

Yes its says 'Freeholders Building Insurance'. All flats pay the premium every year. I do not have a separate insurance. I assume I can claim from that or will I have to ask the Freeholders to claim?

My excess is £500. I am not sure who will pay this. Honestly its not mine or the damaged flat's owner's fault.

eddddy

deepam said:

Yes its says 'Freeholders Building Insurance'. All flats pay the premium every year. I do not have a separate insurance. I assume I can claim from that or will I have to ask the Freeholders to claim?

Your neighbour has to ask the freeholder to make the claim - as it's your neighbour's flat that is damaged.

deepam said:

My excess is £500. I am not sure who will pay this.

Do you mean the excess on the freeholder's building insurance is £500?

If so, as I said previously, it will either be that...

• 1) The freeholder pays the £500 excess from Service Charge funds
• or 2) The leaseholder with the damaged flat pays the £500 excess. 
• (or If 2 flats are damaged, maybe you decide to split the £500 between the two flat owners)

But there might be a big argument about whether it should be option 1 or option 2. 

deepam said:

Honestly its not mine or the damaged flat's owner's fault.

That's exactly what I've assumed in my comments above.

If it was your fault, you'd probably be liable for the cost of repairs.
If it was your neighbour's fault, they'd probably be liable for the cost of repairs.

deepam

Thank you for explaining