Damage from upstairs apartment.

GetInTheHole!

Looking for some advice if possible please.

We live in a ground floor apartment and after coming back from holidays - discovered damage to our hall wall / ceiling from a leak from upstairs.

We called the management company who arranged for an emergency plumber immediately who identified the cause of the leak as coming from inside an apartment upstairs.

Apparently this means that the management company will not get involved now in repairing the damage caused and instead we have to sort out between ourselves and the owners of the apartment upstairs.

We called the owner upstairs and explained our situation and also how the management company had advised us to contact them directly.

The owner of the upstairs apartment immediately dismissed any responsibility for repairing the damage caused in our hall and pretty much said they had nothing more to say on the matter.

Before we go down the road of solicitors etc. - does anybody have any experience / advice on a situation like this please?

Thanks

The_Conductor

You have a long term lease from the Management Company. They are your first port of call. It is strange that they are dismissing this so readily- and referring you to the other owner- it most certainly is the remit of the Management Company to resolve this issue.

As a general rule- the Management Company will be in charge of anything that affects the structural integrity of the building, and the exteriors in their totality. Water- will have some effect/impact on walls etc.

We had similar issues here- the owner of the damaged apartment offered the Management Company the opportunity to repair the damage- and when they declined, gave the Management Company 3 quotations from local tradesmen to make good the damage- the Management Company chose to use its own people in lieu of an exterior contractor. (In our case- the upstairs owner badly installed a toilet that had a persistent leak over several months causing all told over 12k of damage).

The Management Company in turn tried to get the owner of the upstairs unit to pay for the damage they caused, they failed to however, and decided it wasn't worth chasing, put in an insurance claim, and the insurance company are pursuing the owner instead.

Hope this helps.

SMcCarrick

Victor

GetInTheHole! wrote: »

The owner of the upstairs apartment immediately dismissed any responsibility for repairing the damage caused in our hall and pretty much said they had nothing more to say on the matter.

In writing, sticking to the facts and not assigning blame:

"I understand from the management company('s plumber)* that the damage to our apartment was caused by an ingress of water from your apartment. This repair will cost several hundred / thousand euros to repair. I would be grateful for your proposals on this matter."


* delete as applicalbe.

kkelliher

In simple terms the following applies

(1) The management agents who represent the management company are responsible to put in place an insurance policy for the building. The insurance company should therefore be notified if there is damage to the property and they should deal with the claim. It is not for the manageing agent to decline a claim on behalf of the insurance company. You may have to pay an excess ( which may be large) but outside of that the cost should be covered. Any damage to contents would have to be covered by a contents policy which you should have taken out yourself.

(2) unless you can prove the neighbour was neglegent they are not liable for the damage caused even if the water escaped from their apartment. this is hard to prove but not impossible but you will need to find out exactly what caused the damage.

jd

The managing agents can only put a claim through on behalf of the management company, who are the holders of the policy. This led to a dispute between our OMC and the agent. As a result of the number of claims that the agents were allowing against the policy our premium and excess rose sharply. In the end the agents resigned and the development is now self managed.

Graces7

Wondering if there is anything in your existing paperwork on this? Some )kind of escape clause ( wrong word I know; some kind of exemption I mean from this kind of thing...

GetInTheHole!

Thanks for the responses.

Management company have said that the excess on the building insurance is €1000 and therefore is not worth our while pursuing that route.

That is why they put me in touch with the owner of the apartment upstairs.

Thankfully - no contents where damaged and it is just a case of repairing the paster on the wall / ceiling.

I am just worried that it will be a case of both the Management company and the owner upstairs both refusing responsibility which will leave us in limbo.

Marcusm

GetInTheHole! wrote: »

Thanks for the responses.

Management company have said that the excess on the building insurance is €1000 and therefore is not worth our while pursuing that route.

That is why they put me in touch with the owner of the apartment upstairs.

Thankfully - no contents where damaged and it is just a case of repairing the paster on the wall / ceiling.

I am just worried that it will be a case of both the Management company and the owner upstairs both refusing responsibility which will leave us in limbo.

I have leaked out twice and been leaked into once by a neighbour. If the leak come from pipe work within their demise (ie not common area pipes but pipes to individual items such as toilets) or from appliances in your neighbour's property it is absolutely their responsibility.

The insurance carried by the OMC will cover only common area items (hence the hefty deductible or excess). Your neighbour's contents policy (yes I am not making up the term) will likely (for an apartment) cover him for damage due to escape of water from his property. He is responsible for the damage arising from his own escape of water.