Newly painted ceiling water leak damage?

Newly painted ceiling water leak damage?

15:05 PM, 19th July 2016, About 8 years ago 12

Text Size

I`m a private landlord and rent out a top floor flat. Last year the flat was fully refurbished including new bathroom and kitchen. Flat below is also rented out.ceiling

The letting agent for flat below contacted us regarding stains on their roof. On inspection our flat had a small leak under the bath due to a new pipe connection. The amount of water under the bath was minimal and did not seem enough to go through the floor into downstairs.

We requested photographs of damage, but photographs sent to us by downstairs letting agent do not look like water damage at all and are in a different area to the water leak. The letting agent claims that the flat has just been repainted and want us to cover repainting both ceilings.

The photographs received of the damaged ceilings do not look like freshly painted ceilings either.

Any advice?

Angela


Share This Article


Comments

AA

6:43 AM, 21st July 2016, About 8 years ago

Liability exists ONLY if negligence is involved. Buildings insurance liability is not like car accident insurance. For example . If there is a running tap which overflows which you can see and do nothing about and causes damage below you would be responsible. However if a leak is not visible and you deal with it once brought to your attention you are NOT responsible.

Mike

10:11 AM, 21st July 2016, About 8 years ago

Asif that also happened at my wife's flat, the bathroom sink had a small dribble even when tightly shut, our tenants did not tell us about this small dribble, on top of this the sink drain had blocked up, so the tenants went to work, and the water started to overflow from the top of the sink, and out through the downstairs ceiling! by now the downstairs were were the new tenants, their ceiling had been repaired previously, so they tried to alert my tenants but no one responded, and thinking someone may have collapsed in the bathroom, they called the police, who came and smashed 3 of my doors and shut the water from the mains stop cock and left with a note apologising, they only made temporary repairs to the main door to the flat so that it was secured after they broke it to gain access.

My tenants came back from work to find out all doors had been smashed up, they rang me to notify, I went there and was horrified as to why my tenants did not notify me if there were any problems with water drainage and or leaking taps, I made them responsible and had to ask them to pay almost £300.00 to fix 2 doors and replace one as well as get the drains cleared out, they were not happy about it, they also had to pay downstairs tenant another £60 for a child mattress as that got soaked with water. I made sure that my tenants learned to be responsible next time, and the fact that I do not take any deposit because I can't be arsed about strict regulations regarding deposit protection.

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

or

Don't have an account? Sign Up

Landlord Tax Planning Book Now