Insurance question?

[Northtosouth]

Not sure if this is the right place to post but looking for some advice.
I recently had a leak in my property that leaked downstairs into the neighbours flat causing quite a lot of damage. There is no joint insurance policy but we each have our own insurance.
I claimed on my insurance under the personal liability policy however my insurance company denied the claim and said they didn’t find me liable as the leak was caused by something I couldn’t have known about in advanced and not something that would typically require maintenance, on top of this I had the leak fixed straight away.

The neighbour below then had to claim on their own insurance, who are now coming after me as they are trying to hold me responsible saying I am liable. My question is if my insurance is denying liability but the neighbours insurance is saying I am liable what happens now? Can they come after me personally for the money? It’s over £8,000 damage apparently which I obviously don’t have spare. What will happen ? I’m so worried, I’m having sleepless nights about it.

I think that if your neighbour's insurers are saying you're liable, you need to tell your insurers and let the two companies fight it out between themselves.

That's what happened when my ILs were in a similar position.

I’ve passed the correspondence onto my own insurance company who reiterated I’m not liable, I just have no experience of this and worried I could still be ultimately held liable , thank you though hopefully they will sort it between them.

Your insurers shouldn't have come back to you to repeat that they have decided you are not liable; they should have communicated that to the other insurance company.
I don't think they are doing their job properly. Chase it up and if you don't get any joy from them, consider going to the ombudsman;

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/home-insurance

I think the issue here is that you are trying to claim under pwrsonal liability, but you are not personally liable. The claim needs to go through under the Buildings policy. Often this is set up for the whole building by the freeholder or managing agents, with each tenant paying a fair proportion. You need to contact that insurer to raise the claim, not your own Contents insurer.

There isn’t a buildings policy, there are only 2 flats one upstairs and one down. We each insure our own. There is no managing agent.
I asked my insurance originally if I could claim for the damage to downstairs property and they said no as they only insure my property. I had no other option but to claim liability.

@Thelnebriati thanks I have now been back in touch to ask if they have communicated with the neighbours insurance also I will see what they say first

That sounds very unusual for England, but your flat should in that case have its own buildings insurance cover. That is what you need, not liability. The liability cover still will not cover this, whichever policies you look at. I think you should just pick up the phone to your insurers, it'll be much quicker than asking strangers to guess what your policy says.

Are you able to elaborate on the cause of the leak? Burst pipe? Washing machine? Shower?

We had the exact same situation, over twenty years ago. We had a leak in our, upstairs flat (and had virtually no damage), but lady below us had ceiling damage and a sofa ruined (🙁).

Basically, she had to claim through her insurance company, and they bore all the costs.