Leak caused by neighbours scaffolding- help!

[Emma-mac]

Hoping someone can help..

my next door neighbour (who I have a great relationship with) is having a extension to the back of the house. I came home from work last week to find scaffolding on my extension roof. No one has mentioned it going there and my landlord was less than impressed when he saw it.

I spoke with my the neighbour and explained that the landlord said that any damage will have to be put right.

flash forward to this morning, I woke up to water coming through my ceiling, completely soaking the carpets and causing the flooring in the kitchen to lift (when I say soaking, I mean actually soaking). There is damage to the ceiling in the dining room and the kitchen ceiling (along with other non important things; photos, dining table etc).

I immediately called my neighbour who came straight away to have a look. They got in contact with their builder who said they would come and look. They’ve been to look, they’ve said they’ve broken a few roof tiles and the scaffolding is pushing down on the tiles and letting water in between. They said not to worry and they would get it “dried out”. They said I could get a carpet cleaner to get up the water. I was annoyed by this because the carpet is drenched- the underlay is surely going to be ruined. There was then talk of replacing that part of the carpet (I have one piece of carpet running throughout the dining room and living room). He could see I wasn’t agreeing so said he was going to go and cover my roof so no more water gets in and he’d be back to chat later.

Am I being unreasonable to assume that he should be replacing the entire carpet? My house isn’t very big, the dining area is quite small. I can’t help but think it would look odd if he just did that on are and patched it together (downstairs is open plan, so there are no doors in between the rooms/area).

Any advice would be hugely appreciated

[echat11]

Hi Emma

No your not being 'unreasonable'. What you need to do is take pictures / video of the damage, both inside and outside (if you can). Write a full summary of what's happened etc.

Your landlord should have insurance, his insurance company should be claiming against the builders insurance company for damage to the carpet and anything else. Builders have 'liability insurance'.

[atticus]

Are the carpet and any other damaged items yours, or do they belong to the landlord?

[Emma-mac]

Annoyingly the carpets are mine my landlord doesn’t seem interested with the interior, only the structure.

the builder has sent loads of videos detailing the damage to the roof/apologising for it all

He is now saying that he might get new underlay if he can’t get it dry. I spoke with the shop that fitted the carpet, he said in his opinion the carpet should be written off. He said the base of the carpet is hessian so it will crumple over the next few week. I’m honestly not even sure if that’s true or what I’m supposed to do about it

[echat11]

You need to find out if you are covered against contents damaged under your landlords insurance policy, but more likely under the builders liability insurance. Until you put things in writing to them, you will go around in circles.