Please help: AIBU to wonder how we can prove neighbours' building works are to blame for our flooded cellar?

[AliasGrace47]

Background : I'm doing my A Levels. I live w my mum, who is a full time carer for my 92yo gran. We are low income, as recently my gran has been quite unwell & my mum has been unable to go out & tutor people while I mind her.

Today the builders next door began pneumatic drilling right next to our side passage, and this afternoon our cellar floor was suddenly covered in water. V dangerous as the boiler is in there etc 😳

This has never happened before. My gran has lived here since she was 6.

What do we do? We just paid the insurance which will probs cover it but paying it back will be an issue w the low income we have, and deployed our savings considerably.

As it's Saturday, we were thinking of calling Pimlico Plumbers, who would come, but they are quite pricy for us

The builders deny any responsibility. Is there any way to prove their digging is responsible and get the neighbours to pay their due? At least partly?

I doubt you can prove it. It could just be a coincidence

Call your insurer and speak with the neighbour not the buulder. Your insurer should get this sorted for no more than the excess. They will tell you which company to use to sort it out.

Do you know where the water is coming from? It's mostly dry in the UK at the moment - could they have hit a pipe?

If the plumber sent by the insurer finds evidence that a pipe was damaged, then the insurer will go to your neighbour's insurer for the repair money, and the neighbour's insurer will go after the builder's liability insurance. All you need to do is whatever your insurer asks.

As said above call the emergency number for your insurance. Let them sort it for you, that’s what you pay them for.

Second advising to call your insurer. Do not go straight to an emergency plumber.

Wonder if the work requires a party wall agreement? Have your mum / gran been approached by next door?

Insurance. Dont mess around. Sorry this is happening.

Insurance.

That's exactly what I think happened!

Call your insurance, see if they have a 24/7 line.

I think the insurance often covers legal advice. And there possibly should have been a proper party wall agreement in place.

Have you spoken to to them

Get your insurer to send a surveyor.

Is there a party wall? ie a wall shared between yours & the next door neighbour's property? If so, the neighbour should NOT have done any work without a Party Wall agreement.

It doesn't really matter whose fault it is. If you have insurance, call them and they will arrange any plumbers ir builders required.

Any building work carried out within 1 metre of property boundary has to be covered by a Party Wall Agreement where the works are described and agreed to, a surveyor acting for the neighbours (ie your family in this case) but paid for by the developers (your neighbours) inspects the plans and agrees that they are taking due care for the integrity of the neighbouring property, and includes an insurance policy that will cover any inadvertent damage to the neighbouring property.

If your neighbour is doing structural work that affects your property you can apply to the local court for an emergency injunction requiing them to stop until an appropriate survey is done.

If you are in rented accommodation this is the landlord's problem and his building insurance providers will run the case to sue the bastards into oblivion

We just paid the insurance which will probs cover it but paying it back will be an issue w the low income we have, and deployed our savings considerably.

That’s not how insurance works luckily :) You’ll pay an excess on the repairs but the insurance company will pay the rest.

Give them a call asap and explain the situation and see when they can send someone round.

Do you have a party wall agreement if they're digging that close?!?!

If there isn't one, they need to stop work immediately. It's SO dry at the moment that it's highly likely they've hit a pipe when drilling.

Your insurance can sort things out for you and if the neighbour is liable the insurance can chase them for the money.

Thanks so much to everyone! I managed to get her out of her defeatist attitude and the insurance company agreed to fix it. It wax really good to have the advice here to reassure me I was doing the right thing!

Was it builders

Yes. The neighbours will have to pay up. They work for a famous company & last time they caused damage my mum didn't try & get them to take responsibility as she thought it would be no good.

They have this odd arrangement where the builders have been working in the house for 3 years. They say it will soon be their forever home but the last people who owned it just lived somewhere else all the time, got builders to do it up, and sold it for a higher price. We think that's what's happening here again ☹️

Good to hear that it's in hand now @AliasGrace47 But do talk to your neighbour about a Party Wall agreement.