Pipe Burst in Next Door Neighbours House - No Way to Contact Them

JazzyJ

Hi,

My friend has a house (terraced) where a pipe/tank has burst in the next door neighbours house. This was spilling water over into my friends house and flooding the main bedroom. The water has been turned off from the outside stopcock, so at least there's no more water flowing. From looking in through the windows there is significant damage in the house, with celings collapsed and flooding in general.

The problem is the house is currently unoccupied - I think the owner was elderly and has either died or gone to a home. None of the other neighbours have any contact information for the neighbour either.

What are the best steps for the following:

1. Contacting the owner of the house in order notify them and get the problem resolved.
2. Arranging for insurance claim (would the claim be on my friends insurance or the insurance of the neighbour, if there is any).

There's been a builder over to look at things and he reckons that there's no point in fixing up the house until the flooding in the neighbours is resolved.

Thanks,

J.

ABajaninCork

Bit long winded I know, but is there any way of checking records to find who owns the house? (In the UK, it's the land Registry, but not sure who it would be here).

Is the Local Authority a good place to start? From there, you can make contact with the owners and their insurance, I would assume. If the owner's in a home of some sort, then if you approach the home they might be able to help you find relatives who may be able to take responsilbility for the problem.

robd

JazzyJ wrote: »

What are the best steps for the following:

1. Contacting the owner of the house in order notify them and get the problem resolved.
2. Arranging for insurance claim (would the claim be on my friends insurance or the insurance of the neighbour, if there is any).

Contact the gardai. They have access to info you don't and have the best chance of getting this resolved.

Can't see how this is different to house being flooded by an overflowing river from an insurance perspective. So it would be off own insurance.

If the place is derelict, I'd imagine the option here would likely be that you'd have to break into the place (with assistance of gardai) and then have the place secured (boarded up). At the end of the day flooding can lead to structural damage so this is an emergency and needs to be resolved ASAP.

By you I mean your friend.

JazzyJ

robd wrote: »

Contact the gardai. They have access to info you don't and have the best chance of getting this resolved.

Can't see how this is different to house being flooded by an overflowing river from an insurance perspective. So it would be off own insurance.

If the place is derelict, I'd imagine the option here would likely be that you'd have to break into the place (with assistance of gardai) and then have the place secured (boarded up). At the end of the day flooding can lead to structural damage so this is an emergency and needs to be resolved ASAP.

By you I mean your friend.

Yeah but presumably the Gardai would only have the fact that person X lives in the house. Can't see them doing much more as its a civil matter, other than recording that you're accessing rather than breaking in to the house. Presumably, you'ld be liable for any damage done when accessing the house.

Jim

delllat

this is a scary amount of pipes bursting in empty houses thesedays ,its making me scared to buy one :eek: