UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello, i am after some advice on the following.

My Tenant informed me last night there was a leak from the back of the bathroom sink upstairs, the emergency plumber confirmed the pipes - were - probably not connected properly when fitted and confirmed her story.  However, the tenant did not knock the water off by the stop cock and it has caused considerable damage to the property, where do i stand on this?  Thanks in advance.

Will your insurance cover the damage?  When did the leak happen?  When did she report it to you?  Who called the plumber?

Quote from: Mortimer on July 18, 2019, 01:33:46 PM
Will your insurance cover the damage?  When did the leak happen?  When did she report it to you?  Who called the plumber?

Hello, thanks for he reply.

My LL insurance will not cover accidental damage - i am unsure about the initial problem, but that would not have cost much to fix.  They texted me at 10.45 last night and said she had knocked off the water - but has admitted to the plumber this was around an hour after the leak started.   I phoned my LL insurance and they sorted out the plumber and electrician because the kitchen roof has caved in and the lights were damaged.  I am not sure what else is damaging as i live 100 miles away and won;t see until Saturday.

Hm.  It takes a lot of water to make the kitchen roof fall in, even if it's only plaster.  It may have been a very large leak, but it's more likely that the leak started while she was out (at work?) and she didn't notice until evening.

This is going to come down to Lord Denning's ruling on using the property in a tenant-like manner and I don't think you'll be able to hold her accountable.  But you may well have a claim against the original plumber.  Poor workmanship is not accidental damage, so read your insurance policy carefully to see what it says.

Oh, and it's worth checking whether the property is still habitable and whether any of the tenant's belongings were damaged.  Consider re-housing your tenant and compensating her for any of her things that that can't be repaired.

Thanks for your help mate, but not to worry anymore, the insurance are happy to pay out a grand without quibbling, so that should cover most of the damage, and they are good tenants, so we will cover the rest if it's anymore.  Thanks again.