Landlord problems - should I pay?

moneysavinmonkey

MoneyJess wrote: »

OK, and here's the bad bit, I haven't got contents insurance. I (naively)assumed that, as the flat is fully furnished, the contents that belong to the landlord are covered by his insurance. I decided that I was willing to take the risk with my own belongings. As it looks like I will have to pay if the claim is seen to be legitimate, I'm now more concerned about said legitimacy...

oh dear. Well lesson learned. Tenants insurance isn't expensive, can be as little as £40 for the whole year so well worth it if something goes wrong.

As you are going to be paying yourself, you'll have to act as your own claim assessor. Take photos of the damage that you can see. From your first post it sounds like there is not damage to your property just to the flat below?? Does that flat also belong to the landlord? Can you ask to go and see the damage - if you know anyone who is a electrician/plumber/generally handy get them to come with you and give their opinion too.

If you do have to replace the cooker and washing machine may be best to source these yourself and find the cheapest place to get them and negotiate discounts etc. How exactly did the cooker and washing machine get damaged - is there also damage to walls/plaster other electrics?

MoneyJess

I'm not sure if I made it clear, but my landlord is also the landlord of the flat downstairs. Does this make a difference? I just realised that my first message may have made it look like I was asking my landlord to pay for the damage I did to someone else's flat....!

Somerset

I've no idea on the insurance front, but if the downstairs flat is tenanted, any chance you could pop down for a natter and a 'once-over' ?

MoneyJess

And no, there is no damage to my property. The floor dried out almost straight away and nothing else was affected. I'm friendly with the tenants downstairs, so they would let me in to take pictures etc, and to corroborate the landlord's claims that things are breaking down.

Bungarm2001

Tenants of mine did almost the same thing once (they went back to Greece for a long weekend and left the washing machine on!!!:eek: :eek: ) Needless to say, the flat underneath (which was not mine) was damaged, but surprisingly not too much (solid floors helped A LOT!)

As I knew the tenants weren't insured despite my nagging..err...suggestions, I knew I'D be in for a fair old claim from the tenants/LL downstairs, but as it turned out, they (and their LL) were surprisingly easygoing about it all..seems they had been flooded once before well before I owned the property and weren't all that perturbed by it.

Anyway, to get to the point, if I were you I'd try and see the damage for yourself if the tenants are approachable. Take someone with you maybe, but try not to be too confrontational with them or the LL.

They might not have a clue that the LL is claiming for a new washer/fridge or whatever. The LL may well be trying it on just to pocket the cash and not replace the appliances that were 'damaged,' so call his bluff. If he is genuine then he should have absolutely no objection to you having a look because after all, one way or another you will be paying for it/them.

Good luck..let us know how it goes.

I will refrain from stating the obvious...:rolleyes:

MoneyJess

Thank you Bungarm. The tenants are very friendly - they were in when 'the incident' happened and I went straight downstairs and did I all could to help. I'm sure that they won't have any objection to me checking things out. To be honest, it sounds to me that the landlord could get the appliances repaired, but is testing the water to see if I'll pay for him to get new ones!

MoneyJess

And thank you everyone for not castigating me for not having contents insurance (as I'm sure you can imagine, I'm doing enough of that by myself!)

KiKi

Hi Jess

I wouldn't tell your Landlord at this point that you don't have insurance or he may well push it. Casually speak to your neighbours downstairs, check out the story and see what you can find out. Take photos. If you think he's trying it on, then I would get in an electrician or assessor to check it out...I don't know if you can do that without notifying your Landlord, though.

Let us know how it goes.

KiKi

MoneyJess

This is all a bit confusing, because I spoke to my brother in law last night, who used to be a letting agent. He said that any landlord should have accidental damage cover, which would cover this type of (very common) incident and that I definitely shouldn't have to pay. He says that it is irrelevant whether or not I have contents insurance. V confused now....!

geri1965_2

He may or may not have accidental damage cover - it isn't included as standard.

I'm not very good with property claims though - would it be classed as accidental damage or escape of water?

Either way your landlord is not obliged to be insured, not does he have to claim against his own insurers even if he is, so he is still entitled to pursue you for the cost of the damage.

I would definitely ask for evidence of the cost though and another thing you might want to say to him is that if you are paying for new items, you are entitled to the salvage of the old ones.