Tenant issue

[Rosie8880]

Hi.

Have been renting to a tenant for 2 years and also extended AST for another year ending in summer next year. All good and fine, no hassle. This week two flats below were impacted by water emanating from my flat. The lower of the two has water marks/ damage to one ceiling, the flat below water has leaked to about 3 rooms - ceilings, carpets. plumbers have reported that it’s inconclusive and would need to do further investigations but say likely cause of a bath overflow. Tenant is worried as says this did not happen and is worried about further leaks. My flat is unscathed which I find strange if thankful, considering volume of water thought to have escaped. I will face claims from both flats which will be covered by insurance.

interested to hear what others would do as next steps.

My plumbers also said there were no sealant issues initially. But the next day the people upstairs used their bath again and within seconds water reappeared on my ceiling. Plumbers then came back (despite it being the weekend) and I agree they could drill a hole in my ceiling and they tested what happened when they poured water in various places upstairs so the sealant culprit was finally identified. It took quite a few weeks for the whole thing to be sorted. We didn’t go through insurance as the upstairs neighbour paid for everything (to be frank, I should bloody think so given the nightmare they caused for me and the flat downstairs). It was a super stressful time. Ages for the ceiling etc to dry out. I had to replace all my bathroom electrics (and obviously couldn’t use the old ones for a good 10 days or so as they were too wet and dangerous). And then we had to wait for repairs, decorators etc. The inconvenience caused (and time off work!) was an absolute pain, and as you can probably tell, I’m still pissed off with my neighbour. But I also appreciate that they paid for it all to be sorted rather than us having to battle through insurance claims and get multiple quotes from tradespeople etc.

Accidentally letting a bath overflow ONCE is not breach of contract or grounds to evict someone 🙄 If you can prove that they did let the bath overflow, you can charge them (or, hopefully, their insurance) the cost of repairs.

I have had 3 similar mysterious leaks in 3 different properties that several plumbers have been unable to find the cause of before finding it on the 2nd or 3rd visit.

1. The bath had moved slightly so when the bath was filled with water, the weight opened up the seal between the bath and plug hole.
2. A nail in a pipe causing a tiny leak that pooled elsewhere and eventually came through the ceiling when it had built up after about a year!
3. One I can’t remember 😂 but 2 plumbers from the insurance company swore there was no leak until we hired our own plumber who found it.

Oh my christ! As this is a tenanted property and also the property downstairs is think this will all be fine via insurers tbh but will need to see. Can totally understand why you were pissed off with neighbour.

If there is nothing under your bath at all, and no wet floor it sounds very unlikely to me that it was something caused by the tenant.

You need a good plumber to a do a proper investigation.

A plumber claimed my tenants "must" have overfilled the bath when a downstairs flat was flooded. A second plumber said the same. Turned out that there was a leak in the drainage pipe well after the water left the bath. Absolutely no fault of the tenant, and no way they could have known.

Interestingly (to me) the plumber who actually discovered the issue wrongly believed the tenant owned the flat. They were the first to not assume carelessness from a tenant and actually found the problem.

Interesting - tenant v home owner discrimination perhaps?

If it was bath overflow your own bathroom floor would be damaged.

What is the pattern of the water? Like the shape of the stain in ceiling of the properties below?
Bath overflow would be in a shape around where the bath is obviously.

The tenant wasn't there? Even if they weren't they'd see it when they returned? How could it be from yours without them knowing? Unless it's to do with guttering?

Hi discobob

Good name ;) no damage or patterns on floors or around bath.tenant says no overflow from bath - they may be tellling truth or fibbing without being there difficult to know.

It might not be the bath, water travels. Did they check all the bathroom connections and seals, washing machine etc. Do you have collective buildings and contents insurance?

We own a company that deals with this sort of thing regularly. It is super, super unlikely that there would be no sign of wetness under or around the bath. This would only happen if it were a leak in the pipes as against an overflow, an overflow would get water everywhere.

You seem very hasty to find fault in your tenant when there doesn't seem to be any evidence there has been anything done by them.

Would you really evict them for 1 bath overflow event, even if you could prove that is what happened?

Massively unreasonable.

I’m in the fence here atm. If it was a bath overflow that caused water damage to 3 rooms below, the overflow would have been a lot - aka going into other rooms too I would assume - which would be negligent.

Sounds more like a landlord issue than a tenant issue to me. Your floor would be soaked if the bath overflowed, it's not, yet you're still doubting your tenant after a 5 minute visit from a plumber who admits they don't actually know.

OP you sound like a nightmare landlord who is trying to blame the tenant rather than having this correctly investigated by your insurance...

You need to call them and ask them to properly investigate the cause of the leak with a qualified plumber.

It says it all that your first instinct is to think about evicting the tenant...

Should say the water escape was a one off - didn’t happen again / hasn’t happened again

I was wondering about that, and surely if this was caused by broken or leaking pipes it would still be happening?

Clearly the tenant isn't going to admit overflowing the bath - especially if there's likely to be a bill for the damage - but if two plumbers are suggesting that's the likely cause I'm not sure what else you can do except proceed on that basis

Edited to add that asking the insurers to investigate would also be a good idea, if only to confirm or deny what you've already been told

How does a bath even overflow in 2025? Mine couldn't if it tried - water pressure plus overflow would keep it steady. If it had actually overflowed then your floor would be wet. End of story. However it could have leaked from the overflow. That happened to my bath once, the pipe that connected the overflow had come loose and water was pouring through the overflow down into the bathroom below. Not my fault, and won't be your tenant's fault either if that's what happened.

If there is damage to 3 rooms in the flat below the water has obviously spread, either under your floor/above downstairs ceiling or in the walls (or a combination). A bath overflowing would wet your bathroom floor if it came over the sides. If it was through the pipe which is meant to deal with this before the actual bath runs over then it should go into the drain and your tenant would probably be unaware. If there is a fault in your bath drainage then a plumber should be able to find this, although water doesn't always come out right below the fault.

My own related tale is quite specific but I'll add it in case your plumbing investigations need to go further. We own and rent out a flat on the top floor of a converted Victorian property. Over the years we had multiple claims from the flat below that our flat's bathroom had leaked and caused damage, and each time we had plumbers in to reseal our bath and made good the damage downstairs. UNTIL... a different plumber had reason to go in to the loft and found that there were two water tanks, one of which had a defective float valve which meant the tank was sometimes reaching the overflow. However, someone had positioned the overflow pipe on top of an internal wall, rather than fixing it to escape through the outside wall to safely flow away. For whatever reason, the water seepage had bypassed our flat and emerged in the flat below. Our plumber redirected the overflow, we informed the freeholder what we had done and suggested that the dodgy overflow (on a tank that our flat didn't use) and damage arising were appropriate for them to sort on buildings insurance, rather than expecting us to foot the bill again. Four years later and no more bathroom leaks!

I completely agree. I'm a landlord and wouldn't even consider raising it with the tenants if they have otherwise been fine.

It may be a plumbing issue or it may have been an accidental overflow. As I said up thread, accidents happen. If they are otherwise good tenants then, even if it seems they were to blame, I would just let it go.

But my money is on a plumbing issue.

Interesting - tenant v home owner discrimination perhaps?

Extremely common for people to assume that a tenant is at fault as the assumption is they just don't care about a property remotely the same as a landlord.

Tbh you're kinda coming across that way yourself - your bathroom floor is dry and under your bath shows no signs of leaks yet you seem utterly convinced your tenant is at fault.

If your tenant has always been a good tenant then it's, frankly daft to assume they've suddenly become reckless.
And most of my tenants recently have actually taken even better care of my flat than I do my place because of how precarious renting is atm!

No not necessarily. This might just be the first occasion it has been noticed but happened before. I dealt with a broken radiator pipe in a bedroom at dm house which was a slow leak i. The water initially headed for a light fitting in the room downstairs as the lowest point, not immediately below, then spread once the material was sodden and brought the ceiling down. Relatively little evidence or damage upstairs other than a damp patch on the carpet under a bed. You need to resolve it asap otherwise it could recur and cause further damage.

It would also be an accident. Honestly, the likelihood of a simple bath overflowing causing damage however many floors down, but with no sign of any damage within your flat itself is so small as to be negligible. I can't believe you are willing to blame, and evict an otherwise good tenant just to potentially avoid any insurance claim on your part. Apart from that which would cover your eviction costs of course, heaven forbid. 🙄

I agree. Except the insurance would still have to pay for it. I suppose she could try to claim the excess from the deposit, but she'd find it hard to prove.

I can see no benefit at all in either trying to blame the tenant and to try to evict otherwise good tenants because of it would be astonishingly stupid.

Has the plumber lifted the floor under the bath to see if it is a leak from a pipe in the gap

We had a grout issue once where water was getting behind the tiles and soaking the plasterboard behind (not visble) and when at saturation point it went downwards to the flat below.

A flat above mind their shower tray wasn't sealed properly causing damage to my ceiling

Water's a bugger! It can take time for any issue to come to light

Thank you! I think if there was no damage to your floor etc then they may be telling the truth.

What did they say about it? Were they aware it happened at all? Were they in when it allegedly happened?

I hope you get to the bottom of it. I guess it's good you've no damage to your actual place. So how can the tenant be worried if it didn't affect them at all and they were unaware?

So how can the tenant be worried if it didn't affect them at all and they were unaware?

Possibly aware that they're likely to get the blame regardless of what happened...

Get the sense from the neighbours/ letting agent she is persona non grata with some neighbours atm which does feel unfair - as you say accidents happen/ mistakes happen but when homes are damaged and if others feel based on plumbers reports it’s was negligence and if there is denial can see how that is frustrating/anger inducing when living with water damage in home..