Legal clarity on flat to flat water leaks?

Hello, There was a leak from one flat down to several other flats caused by a damaged waste pipe from the sink. The flats are 20 years old.

Once discovered, the damaged pipe was repaired straight away. There has been no malicious or negligence by the leaseholder from where the leak came from.

Secondly, the insurance has such an excess for any water damage of £15k so as to make a claim unviable by all those concerned (flat from where leak came from and three or four flats below). I understand that the excess was needed to secure insurance due to several previous leaks and significant storm damage.

So the three issues are:

1. It is my understanding that as there was no malicious or negligent activity, there is no recourse for the other
leaseholders to take action against this flat for their consequential damage.

I would like to get legal clarity that this is indeed correct.

2. For some blocks, the service charges can include insurance excesses (in this case the whole cost) i.e. the monies for such events come out of the service charges. Where the lease explicitly states that this cannot be done, then there is no recourse here.

I understand that when it is not clearly mentioned (as is the case here) then, when such an event has been presented to court there have been polar outcomes.

Again, I would like to get clarity as to whether there is a case against the Directors of the management company/managing agents to ensure that this happens.

3. Notwithstanding the difficulties of obtaining insurance, is it the responsibility of the managing agents/directors of the ‘right to manage block’ to:

a) ensure that a sub £1k excess is obtained for flat to flat leaks or

b) not just to advise all leaseholders of the very high excess, but to make clear they all have a potential liability of up to £15k that is not covered.

I am much more interested in the first query.

I think flat to flat leaks are become an exponential problem in the buy to let market as more flats become of an age where pipe corrosion will be happening.

Thank you,

NG