I moved in a flat I bought a month ago. Leaving for a week I completely shut off the water supply to my flat, because it is strictly recommended by all plumbers. I did so, so any unexpected leakage won't happen during my absence. I checked the taps until I was sure there was no water coming out.
After I came back I saw a note "leave water off until leak is fixed". The water supply to the flat has been capped. I don't understand why, because the stop valve was already shut down by me. And of course there was no water anywhere. Wasn't it obvious to the plumbers, that there couldn't be leakage after water stop cock point? (Actually, I don't understand why I wasn't contacted before getting access to my property. Freeholder has got all my contacts. Even my conveyaners were contacted and they informed me on my way home.)
When I came home and saw the message I contacted the freeholder's repair. It was only out of hours service. They instructed me to call a plumber to repair the leakage in the flat or confirm there was none. I had to call emergency plumber and he switched on the water supply back and examined all pipes especially in the bathroom, but haven't found any issues in my flat. The boiler's pressure was normal, hasn't fallen down even a bit. I had boiler fully serviced 3 weeks ago. In the morning I wrote to the freeholder with describing the situation and attached my plumber's report. They responded they would send their plumbers for further investigation.
When I went to the neighbour downstairs, he said that was a very bad leakage, but he wasn't affected, the water was coming down via the external wall, but the flat under him was seriously affected. I went to that flat. The owner was very angry and all my explanations that no leakage was found in my flat and my stop valve was shut were not heard obviously. Looks like because I was away I was appointed to become guilty. He kept on saying (shouting) that after my water supply was capped, leakage has stopped. (But it was already shut.) They said the flat above me was checked and no issues in there were found. And the amount of water was enormous, like several buckets of water went down. I tried to find out, if it happen before. He said - in April. (The flat wasn't even mine then.) I asked if there was a leakage the day before when emergency plumber was checking my pipes for leakage and opened water in all taps on full. My neighbour said - No.
I called another plumber two days later for replacing the sewage pipes under the basin in the bathroom, because they seemed a dodgy to me and a bit wet in one of the connection points, so I wanted to avoid any potential threads in future. We nearly put the bathroom to bits. He replaced purely done sewage, but still hasn't found any leakage in my pipes. So, still I can't understand, what it was. The plumbers can't understand. It couldn't be this sewage pipe, because, like I said it was a bit wet after using a bath and a basin, but in the morning after not using them it was absolutely dry. I was away for a week and nothing went down it. Also, like I mentioned, there were buckets of water pouring down, God knows from where.
Now I live in constant fear, like on the volcano. Whenever any leakage happens I will be the one to blame. Can the neighbour downstairs do something against me, demand financial compensation from me via the court, for example? Does he need to provide the proof that it was from me? Can I actually be accused without any proof? I haven't been given any - just the accusation.