Where do we stand.

[deste]

I've posted before about a flat we are selling down south. The first sale fell through after the buyers were refused a mortgage three times. Two weeks later and after several viewings a young couple came to see it and fell in love. They asked what they should now do next about putting in an offer when the neighbour upstairs came in and switched his music on full blast. We never heard from them again. A week later and we had another cash buyer come along and made an offer which we accepted. They were due to exchange in November but the young guy upstairs flooded our flat and the two below causing £25000 of damage to our alone. The fire brigade had to break in as he was out of it on drugs. This was back in October 31st. My DD almost lost the home she was buying because she didn't have her deposit but we managed to bailed her out. Roll on and it is now February and nothing has been done on the flat. Apparently loss adjusters were in this week but we don't know the outcome. DD spoke to someone this week and they said she hasn't been replying to queries about boilers and other things we know nothing about. We are still paying the mortgage, she is still paying council tax, electric and water for the flat and it is getting to the stage where we are really getting stressed. What I want to know is can we claims damages off the neighbour upstairs for all the extra money this has caused. Why we still have a buyer I will never know. He wants to know what is happening as does the estate agent and the solicitor but we know nothing. The neighbour upstairs was growing cannabis beside his boiler and that is where the leak came from. He was charged btw.

To clarify - you own this flat, but your daughter lives in it? You have buyers and they are waiting for the repairs to be done before completing on the sale?

My DD and DH are joint owners but my DD moved back to Scotland three years ago. The flat was rented out for two years. The flat is uninhabitable at the moment and that is why the buyers are waiting. The flat is less than ten years old.

Assuming your insurance company got involved on 1 November, then it is outrageous that they still havent fixed the flat. Your DD or DH need to phone them constantly.

If there was someone living there at the time and they have now had to pay for other accommodation, then yes you should be recompensed. I suspect it will be harder to get them to pay up for the delayed sale, but you should try to get the second mortgage payments and utilities bills paid too.

Unfortunately there is no one as interested in progressing this as you, you will have to be very proactive.

Thank you Sunnyshores. The flat was empty because of the previous sale that fell through and of course we were due to exchange start of November. It's not the fact the sale has not gone through it's the two mortgages, electric, council tax and the maintenance payments for the building. The building is insured through the maintenance company and it is them that is dealing with it but they still have the cheek to bill us for the next six months even though the building has been uninhabitable for the past three months.

Who is it who should compensate us, is it the neighbour upstairs or the insurance company?

Deste - you need to speak to the loss adjusters.

I own an apartment in a much larger development. The owner in the pent house had a leak but there was no key with Consierge and it took 3 days to get hold of him. More than 50 apartments were damaged, some of them were the other side of the development.

The damage to my apartment was minor, a small leak requiring the walls and ceiling redecorating, I reported the damage immediately and the loss adjusters said they would cover the work. I thought I was on the list and they would get to me eventually, when I spoke to the loss adjuster four months later he had forgotten all about my apartment. The work was completed within a week.

Arrange to meet the loss adjuster and discuss which expenses they will cover and timescales.

Hi thanks, unfortunately we are at the other end of the country and we are doing it over the phone, it's just not possible to get down. I will phone tomorrow and get their number and give them a call.

It is the insurer that will reimburse you any costs. Ask your management company for a copy of the block insurance policy and speak to those insurers directly yourself. I suspect the management/maintenance company are just an extra cog in the wheel and causing more delays.

This insurance will just be for building insurance, you will need to claim for any carpets from your own contents insurance. You should alert this insurer of a possible claim too.

Unfortunately you do need to get a handle on this and call constantly,it seems very strange that it hasnt been sorted and fixed already. Once you've located the right person, it should be sorted within weeks and the sale can go ahead.

We have contents insurance but I'm not sure if we are covered because the property was empty for more than thirty days. Thanks I will get on to it tomorrow.

In our case the loss adjuster arranged for all the contractors to be paid direct, our management company gave me the loss adjusters contact details. The loss adjusters were working on behalf of the insurance company.

I keep meaning to take out additional insurance to cover rental voids etc in cases like this but I am never sure of the quality of cover offered by letting agents.