UK Landlord Forum / Life

I own a ground floor flat which I rent out there is 1 flat above where after a second water leak damaging my property the rented flat above's landlord is saying the water damage/leaks etc that he is not liable or responsible and the is'no contract' between us. Am I missing something or....I cannot believe this?? Any one had this situation?

Yes, you (and the upstairs owner) are missing something. An entire part of law called Tort, which is where claims are made for damager arsing from negligence.

There's no contract needed (that's a different part of Law). If someone (like and upstairs neighbour) owes someone a duty of care (like maintaining their plumbing) and neglects to do that duty, and causes a reasonably foreseeable loss (which, after the first time isn't hard) the person suffering the loss can make a claim for compensation.

However, normally leaks from upstairs flats aren't easy to claim for negligence, because it's hard to show that someone's to blame. Sometimes stuff just leaks or breaks - which is why we have insurance. Second time round, different situation.