Leak from upstairs flat

[Flatleak]

Hi all, I was in two minds to post this here or in legal, but would appreciate anyone who knows the answer as google is giving conflicted responses.

I life in a flat in a block, and a mains water pipe leaked at its entry point to my flat. I alerted downstairs and they said a small spot had appeared on their ceiling. I went to check the damage - it was a brown circle about the size circumference of water bottle - and had the pipe fixed at my cost.

They are now chasing me for how to get it fixed and asked for my insurance details. I have no insurance that would cover their ceiling but have reminded them that we have collective buildings insurance, or they would need to try claiming on their contents insurance who claim against mine. I did however point out that the cost of repairing such a small stain would be well below the excess, and asked what it is they wanted reimbursing for (eg just filler/stain block/paint?). I asked as I don't think they are DIY savy and perhaps thought this was a bigger job than it is.

My answer did not go down well however, so my question is - does anyone know what I am liable for? It's not that I mind paying but I would go deal with it myself rather than use a handyman and don't this is acceptable to them.

I feel like I have already paid my insurance excess to get it fixed even though it wasn't my fault, because it was in my flat. This is in their flat so they should do the same?

Does anyone know what the legal position is?

Tell them to claim on the collective buildings insurance if they can't paint their own ceiling or don't want you to do it.

The Legal position is that it is part of your claim as the damage is caused by the water from the pipes you were responsible for. You say you claimed under insurance and paid an excess but the redecorating and making good of the damage they have suffered arose out of the same incident. Ask your insurers whether they have decorators they use or how many quotes they need.

Thanks. I claimed on my British Gas insurance which doesn't cover decoration. The buildings insurance excess is too large for their claim as well unfortunately. They are now saying they want a structural survey to assess damage (I cannot overstate how small the leak and stain was!)

You have an obligation to put their decor back into the condition it was before the damage, so you need to pay for the works to repaint their ceiling. If your insurance won't cover it, that is not THEIR issue, it is your cost.

This ^ . The damage they suffered was still caused by something happening on your property so either you pay to rectify it or claim against any relevant insurance you hold to do it. If the repairs are less than the excess you will need to pay.

Thanks everyone, I get morally why that seems right for them, just wasn't sure legally. Plus it sucks when this isn't my pipework etc!

Does anyone know if it's fair for me to have to pay for a structural survey/instigation?

They don't need a structural survey so if they want one they should pay for it. You OTOH need to pay for their ceiling to be made good by being painted (after the wet patch had dried out.)

I don't understand why everyone is saying it's your responsibility? This is what buildings insurance in blocks of flats is for. They need to put in a claim themselves. I've had experience of a similar situation to this. Neither myself or my neighbours had to pay, insurance covered it all.

The excess on our buildings insurance is over £1000 so won't allow for a claim of decorating I don't think.

That excess seems very high. Are you certain that's correct? There's usually different excess amounts for different types of claims.

I don't believe that legally you have to do anything no.
If they wanted to claim they would need to claim on the buildings insurance but of course like you say it's probably not worth doing.

There’s no legal responsibility (sadly for us when we were in that position and the damage was much worse). They claim on their insurance and their insurer would liaise with yours. We just DIY’d the less severe leaks - short term water pouring through the ceiling, flooding our kitchen, because they left the tap on twice, at least. We claimed on insurance for the bigger one and they had no insurance anyway.

And insurer would only liaise with yours if the cause of the leak was your fault, not wear and tear.

But what insurance @SoFP? We each only have contents and they've said that their contents insurance doesn't cover this? And then the building insurance excess for escape of water damage is over £1k - that's what I'm worried about that they will claim for structural surveys etc on that and I'll be expected to cover the excess, even though its unnecessary.

If they do claim on the buildings the buildings insurance proceed with the claim they're not going to do any surveys that the insurance company deem unnecessary.

However either way, because you've got a collective buildings insurance (one policy for the block of flats rather than multiple policies) there's not really anything to worry about anyway because they can't claim off your policy. It doesn't work like that when there's one policy for one block of flats. They would literally just claim on the buildings insurance and that's that.

And then the building insurance excess for escape of water damage is over £1k - that's what I'm worried about that they will claim for structural surveys etc on that and I'll be expected to cover the excess, even though its unnecessary.

The reason the excess is so much is to stop people claiming for small repairs like this.

I lived in a flat were the insurance excess was £2K for water leaks.

However the lease clearly stated that you had a responsibility to fix all damage caused in a neighbouring flat by leaks.

Not all leases state this as a friend in another flat did not have this. (There were other complexities to his ownership.)

So if your lease is silent on water leaks then they need to claim on the buildings insurance and pay the excess, or more likely sort out their own repair.