Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Any legal experts pariticularly around housing
Basically I have a wrecked bedroom wall, which looks like a slow leak from upstairs bathroom. So got the builders in and both agree, i need extensive work to my wall to replace plaster etc bla bla
But the insurance company covering upstairs say they will only pay for the damage to his flat, and my insurance company have confirmed this and said they will pay for the damage to my flat- apart from the first £300 as in my insurance clause
How is this possible, that due to the damage caused by the upstairs flat, I am responsible for sorting out the damage to my flat which will be the first £300 of the claim and then my premiums also goes up
How that possibly be fare, due to negilence on his part i have to fork out
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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You might want to change your heading - as it's expertise in insurance law, not housing law that you're after. You may find this helpful:
http://www.ashburnham-insurance.co.uk/claims/escape-of-water-leaks-...
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Permalink Reply by tigha on
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Thanks sarah for that link- yes very helpful but not the answer that I was looking for - law sucks!!!!!!!!!
I have maintained a good relationship with the owner upstairs for obvious reasons, even though he now rents the flat to students, but think this is really important to maintain, although I have to say I am probably an ideal downstairs neighbour, whereas he is hard work with the various probs- maybe I can get him to contribute to the costs
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I would say he has a moral obligation to pay your excess - if unfortunately not a legal obligation. Negligence would be difficult to establish as you are not in possession of all the facts - and it may be something his tenants knew about but didn't tell him.
A few years back I was in the position of being the upstairs tenant. Our shower was leaking out the bottom of the shower tray and it got so water was coming up through the laminate in the hall. The downstairs neighbours (also renters) would knock on our door to complain. But the landlord instructed us not to give them his details. A difficult situation and I ended up moving out to a more healthy living environment.
I heard later though that when the repairs were finally done it involved ripping up the floor and replacing the walls, as they were damaged too. The tenants stopped paying rent until it was done.
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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This is a sad but true anomoly. the top flat may have a leak but its all the flats below that get damaged. This happened to me and due to a good relationship, my upstairs neighbour paid for the net cost of a fairly cheap(no paperwork) repair. The entire building is jointly covered by buildings insurance but with excess, not worth it and our joint premium would go up as well. In this case it might be as well to get as good 'value' as you can, ie make sure all the place is redecorated and new skirting throughout etc.
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We had the same kind of issue with a neighbour. They were renters and tried to get in contact with their landlord regarding the problem. Our party wall was getting wet, problem on their side. To cut a long story short our insurance said in the end it was not a question of blame and we covered our redecoration using our insurance. And yes our premiums went up as well. I was quite shocked by the whole incident.
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