Ingress of water from neighbours flat

by venezia 30 December 2011 |

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There was water leak from neighbours flat into mine causing damage to ceiling. He carried out repair to stop water leaking . I made claim through buildings insurance for redecoration of ceiling (ceiling measures approx 3x2ft). Loss adjustor viewed damage and said entire ceiling needed repainting to restore ceiling to condition before leak. Insurance paid bill for redecoration except for excess. Neighbour stated he would pay part of excess to cover cost of repainting repainting over water marks only but was not prepared to pay full excess as believed I would be carrying out redecoration of total ceiling at his expense. I rejected offer and he then denied all responsibility for damage to ceiling. I did not proceed to claims court as I had been hoping to sell my flat and didn't want to have to declare legal dispute. I could not sell. That incident was second ingress of water and happened a few years ago. Now a third ingress of water has occurred. Please advise who is responsible for damage including excess not met by insurers. Please also advise of statute of limitations regarding making a claim for my previous loss.

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witchsusan posted
If you live in a flat i would expect the building insurers to be the same company. If he won't pay for the excess I would advise you to claim from his building insurers, and if it is the same company it will make things easier, if he rents his flat you need to contact the owners or the letting agent.
A solicitors letter may encourage him to give you the information, he may feel he is personally liable and if he finds he is not may encourage him to give you the information.
I don't know if there is a statute of limitations for a buildings claim although it must be in reasonable time due to the circumstances
Posted on 02 January 2012 | Love 0 loves Report
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venezia posted
Hi thanks for your advice - the claim was made through the building insurers (the building is a conversion with a number of flats - both flats are owner occupied) - the excess was not covered by the insurance. The other party (the man living in the flat above, from where the leak arose) checked with their insurers and they also had an excess and so it would have been left to him to pay the excess (my home contents also contains an excess so that did not cover the unpaid excess either) - he refused to pay the excess so I was left with a shortfall for damage that was no in any way my fault. A solicitors letter would have cost almost as much as the shortfall so I did not do that. Any further ideas would be welcome.

What I would like to know is who is legally liable for any uninsured (ie the excess) loss and what law would apply in this situation.
Posted on 03 January 2012 | Love 0 loves Report
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MikeGG1 posted
Venezia

Does either of your insurances have any legal cover? If so, use that to recover anything outstanding. I am sure that your insurers don't want to keep forking out for the same situation and pushing the claim to the other insurers would be in their best interests, unless it is the same company.

If it is the same company, make sure that they don't take an excess off for you and another one from him! They can be sneaky like that!

You should be claiming off his insurance so it would be his excess only.

Mike
Posted on 03 January 2012 | Love 0 loves Report
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SoftwareBear posted
if it's flats ... the building should be insured as a whole by the entity that owns and/or maintains the building ... this entity should be collecting the service charges ... this entity pays for the insurance to cover the entity's liabilities to you as a leaseholder that pays the service charge ... the excess is the entity's problem ... not yours and not your neighbour ... ... as a flat owner you should only need content insurance ... or am I missing something ?
Posted on 03 January 2012 | Love 0 loves Report
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MikeGG1 posted
Very good point SB. We haven't actually established whether this was a Tenant or Landlord responsibility. I assumed it was the other tenant but it could be the landlord.

The same consideration works in the situation where flats are owned leasehold or with a share of the total freehold.

Also, in any of these situations it is normal for the whole building to be insured centrally with the premiums being split as part of the lease or service charge, but there can be variations from that.

The terms of the lease should specify who is liable for what and it can vary.

As to the circumstances, the liability could vary according to whether equipment was faulty and who was responsible for that equipment or whether it was caused by the negligence of a resident.

Life is complicated!

Mike
Posted on 04 January 2012 | Love 0 loves Report

Ingress of water from neighbours flat

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