Can anyone answer this hypothetical Q re fire/insurance?

[GlitteryFluff]

I live in a flat rented from the council.
There is a flat underneath me which also rented from council.
I am attached to a house which is privately owned.

If a fire broke out in my flat and went into the flat downstairs or the house attached to me would I be liable for the cost?

So:
the cost of the belongings in the flat owed to the renters?
the cost of the flat (but given to the council)?

Or would the renters claim on their own contents insurance for belongings and the council claim on their insurance for the cost of the flat?

And what about the privately owned house?
Would they just claim on their insurance for the house and belongings?

Would we be liable for any of it?

Does it depend on how the fire started? Eg negligence (left a candle on) we would be liable but a kitchen appliance just exploding or something wouldn't be our fault?

Basically we only have contents insurance, because we don't own the flat. But should we have some kind of insurance Incase a fire broke out in our flat and caused damage to someone else's place?

This is what goes through my head whilst having a shower and hearing someone else's fire alarm go off.

Normally the building is insured by the owner. In a block of privately owned flats the owners of each flat would contribute to purchase this single policy.
Each flat owner or occupier would purchase their own contents insurance.

As for liability if a fire started because of your negligence .... i guess you could be sued by other flat owners for the loss of their contents (or by their insurer), but i dont know for sure.

I lived in a block of flats which had one council and all the others private. I was top floor. A fire started in a rented flat that eventually set my carpet on fire; although it wasn't awful damage in my flat.

My insurers fixed everything but sued downstairs neighbour, who defended through her insurers but was found to be liable. She was covered through her excess for most of the damages (it was £82k, she had cover to £70k) so she didn't have to pay much, but her insurance costs did skyrocket.

I don't know if that helps at all!

If a fire causes damage to other properties, they will claim on their own insurance in the first instance (renters will claim on their contents insurance, building owner will claim on their buildings insurance)
If their insurer, following investigation, finds that the fire started due to a third party's negligence, then they can seek to recover their costs from the third party's public liability insurance. For example, you left your hair straighteners on, causing a fire - they could claim (subrogate) their costs back under your PL cover, which you should have under your home insurance. If the fault/negligence was due to a building defect, they could go after the landlords building insurance.
Your neighbours would really only try and "sue" you directly if they have been silly and dont have their own insurance. If that were to happen, you just direct them to your insurer, or tell your insurer yourself and pass the letter on.
In a nutshell, you should be adequately protected if you have a decent insurance policy that includes both property cover for your own belongings, and public liability cover.
(I have worked in the insurance industry for 15 years)

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I guess it wouldn't be the silliest of ideas to make sure we have some kind of cover - 'just in case'.

Obviously I hope we never have a fire, and I certainly hope if we had one it wouldn't be down to us being negligent, but should it ever happen we wouldn't be able to pay - we don't have a lot of money hence why we are renting from the council. And we are only covered for our own contents.

So would it be best to look at public liability or a home insurance (purely for other people's belongings/homes - rather than our own)?
Would this cover us even if we were negligent? I suppose I would I need to read the policies carefully to find out.

The vast majority of standard home insurance policies, available to purchase online, will have public liability cover available, possibly as an optional extra (ie you have to pay extra for it). You are looking for a wording along the lines of "Your legal liability as occupier of your home or in a personal capacity for accidents or injury".
Insurance is all about the "just in case"; no-one expects to have a fire, but you buy insurance....just in case :-)

Thank you so much