Good Morning,

Generally speaking, in apartments, building insurance is included in the service charge. Therefore I would get the lettings agent to contact the owner or if you pay direct to the management company and make them aware of the problem. I don't fully know if you situation would be covered by buildings insurance or contents insurance; but I would at least enquire.

I have now instructed my letting agent to find out if the person above has their own building insurance or are covered by a factors buildings insurance as I now think it's him I claim off.

I was on holiday a week but my mum was checking the flat every day and alerted the letting agency on the saturday it happened.

The letting agency are trying to put me under pressure to renew the lease as it is up for renewal on the 22nd of Feb. The flat is not of a fit state to live in so I cannot agree terms untill all works are complete. On the other hand I do not want to hit that I will not be renewing the lease as they may tell me to pack my bags and I currently have this on going insurance claim on the address.

The flat will never be the same as it is now 5 days after it happened and still no signs of being dried out so I am currently looking to move

You didn't mention the length of your holiday but assuming that it was less than 28 days (if it was more, most policies wont cover you), you would be covered by the building policy if it included such water leaks. Some policies include this, some don't. It's up to the leaseholders (= your landlord) and whoever manages communal affairs to decide which policy to take out and some communal buildings policies certainly do cover water leaks while other policies exclude anything inside the flats. If there is cover, I would imagine that it limited to repairing walls and floors after such an incident. Your landlord should be able to request a copy of the policy documents from whoever holds these.

I do agree with your view that you (or your insurer) shouldn't be replacing things that do not belong to you and which were damaged by no fault of yours. In your shoes, I would just get something cheap to cover the floor while I was there (pound shops sell vinyl flooring squares/tiles at about £1 per square meter) and start looking for somewhere else.

You may have a case against the leaseholder in the flat above.

Hi there,

I currently live in a rented flat and have a contract with a letting agency who pay the landlord who has a factor for the building.

On returning from holiday there was an escape of water from the floor above me which caused damage to both bedrooms, bathrooms and hallway's ceilings and floors AND half on the livingroom flooring.

The water escape was discovered on Sat 10/01/09 and I informed my letting agency who inturn informed the landlord.

The tenant above (who owns his fat) had a pumber come out on the 10th to turn the water off and locate the leak in the above floor. it was found that a hot water pipe had leaked due to a push fitting comming lose.

I contacted my contents insuance (I rent so do not have building insurance) to let them know there were personal items along with damage to ceilings and flooring.

It is now Wednesday the 14th and the Landlord and factor have not yet organised specialist equipment to dry out the structure. After a visual inspection from a representative from the landlords buildings insurance, the advisor stated that the cental heating will simply dry out the flat. This is the type of people I am dealing with right now. Being a quantity surveyor I wrote a letter complaining of the poor performace from 3rd parties and not organising dehumidifyers to dry out the structure. Further to this, it was myself who organised a qualified electrician to come out and isolate the affected circuits in the water damaged rooms. Neither landlord or factor mentioned organising an electrician to do this at the time.

Story apart - Am I right in claiming that since the cause of the flood was due to a building defect, I should be claiming the damaged items through my landlords buildings insurance and not my contents?

I have collated a list of items damage and shall be delivering it to my letting agency to pass to the landlord for him to claim these off his building insurance.

Another argument that I am having with the insurance companies and the landlord are the carpets and the vinyl flooring in the bathrooms. They are saying it's up to me to claim them through my contents insurance but all flooring was installed before I moved in at the start of my lease.

Does anyone think I have an argument / I am within my rights, to claim personal belongings and flooring that was damaged by the water through the Landlords buildings insurance without using my contents insurance due to the cause of the flood being a building defect?

Cheers