I've just flooded our downstairs neighbour..advice please!

A question about : I've just flooded our downstairs neighbour..advice please!

While our water was turned off (by another neighbour), I accidentally turned our kitchen taps on and didn't properly turn them off and went out. When i got home it turned out we had flooded our downstairs neighbour, damage tbc. We rent so I called the letting agents who said that the neighbour should claim on their buildings insurance. This seems unfair as the fault lies with us, however as renters we have no buildings insurance, only contents. Has anyone had any experience of this and if so who does responsibility lie with? Should the claim be on the landlord's insurance with any excess paid by us? We're in Scotland, in case the law differs on this elsewhere.

Best answers:

• The responsibility is with you I;m afraid.
  If it is negligent, which it clearly was, then you have to get your insurance to pay for the damage, hopefully the neighbours damage is just contents. Not sure about the buidlings part but they could maybe claim from the LL on this part if anything is damage.
  Had it not been negligent, then the neighbours would have had to pay for their own through their insurance.
  Have you spoken to them yet to establish whether the damage is just contents or buildings and contents.
  And = nice of you to say 'its unfair' most people are on here asking for ways of getting out of paying - good for you
  Ring your contents insurance people up and be guided by them.
  If you hadnt been
• Hi. I am not sure that they can claim for damage on your insurance. From past experience I believe that your insurance will not extend beyond your home. They claim on their insurance and then their insurance negotiates with yours if it is your fault. If you don't have insurance then their insurance covers it.
  We recently had a tree cause damage to several neighbours properties. We thought our insurance would settle it for everyone but the loss adjuster said it was limited to our house and their companies all said the same. They all had to claim on their own and then their insurance claimed from ours (or possibly didn't- we don't know).
• [QUOTE=McKneff;53609639]The responsibility is with you I;m afraid.
  If it is negligent, which it clearly was, then you have to get your insurance to pay for the damage, hopefully the neighbours damage is just contents. Not sure about the buidlings part but they could maybe claim from the LL on this part if anything is damage.
  Thanks for your responses and advice. I've looked through our contents insurance and it looks like we are only covered for our own contents, not a neighbours. Their ceiling and walls are damaged, no contents as far as we know. So it would seem to be a buildings insurance claim. If we owned the flat, I think it would be a straightforward claim on our buildings insurance. I'll try speaking to letting agents again tomorrow to double check that we can't claim on the LL's insurance.
• Most likely, the Landlords insurance will cover it. It'll be paid for out of the rent you pay so doin't feel guilty.
• [QUOTE=aberdour;53612947]
  Quote:
• Hi there, last year we went on holiday abroad for 3 weeks and on returning discovered that our upstairs neighbour had had an issue with his washing machine which had resulted in a significant release of water which damaged our ceiling, floor, wiring and possessions (probably about Ј30k of damage in total).
  To our horror we discovered that the neighbour although having installed some of the plumbing upstairs and has no qualifications in this, had no negligence. Leaving our insurance to pay the full amount, needless to say he is off our Christmas card list! It appears to be correct that your home and contents insurance is for your home only!
  In fact there was no apology or offer of help or any apparent concern. We had to move to temporary accommodation for 6 months to allow renovative work to be undertaken. Eventually I got the guy to pay half of the Ј200 excess and that was his contribution in full.
  I am now about to sell me flat and will do my best to never repeat this mistake of living in a flat/apartment. The rights I thought I would have for redress were non-existent.