Neighbour's continuing damage to my home

[CleverClogs]

Re: Neighbour's continuing damage to my home

In the meantime you can hit him with a bill for the £250 excess on your insurance claim. You'll have to send him a Letter Before Action before you can issue a court claim which you can do online:

But she resides in Scotland, where the strict liability rule in Rylands v Fletcher 1868 does not apply - link

[PlanB]

Re: Neighbour's continuing damage to my home

But she resides in Scotland, where the strict liability rule in Rylands v Fletcher 1868 does not apply - link

So if the OP's neighbour is not "doing something on his property which is in its nature dangerous or not necessary" (like taking a messy bath :tsk: ) he won't be liable for the damage and will get away scot-free msl:

[CleverClogs]

Re: Neighbour's continuing damage to my home

I believe that she'd have to prove negligence, whilst he could defend by saying that he had the reasonable expectation that his bath water (1) would not seep through/around the floor covering and into the flat below.

(1) One assumes the liquid is bath water or, at least, water of some sort rather than wee-wee. msl:

[tattybogals]

Re: Neighbour's continuing damage to my home

you may have a case of private nuisance under the right to quiet enjoyment act.

[Madgrrl]

Re: Neighbour's continuing damage to my home

I'm not blaming my neighbour for my insurance excess.... I would have played with the excesses at the time to get the premium down - as I'm sure many people do - and I made the wrong choice.

Firstly, I have spoken to my neighbour every time this has happened. And I'm nervous of approaching him because he threatened my dad (and also I don't like disturbing people) but I went up there and told him about it every time (not that it made much difference).

You've misinterpreted what I said. My bathroom light is fine. I've never had water coming through that. The damage is to part of the ceiling and walls on opposite sides of my bathroom. This was caused by him not sealing his bath correctly (10+ times I had water coming through due this this alone!) and the water coming through to my property as he took a shower, and then burst pipes as he did not have heating on during a very cold winter. And a couple of other leaks which I'm not sure of the cause of.

He blamed one of the water stains on my bathroom ceiling on *my* shower! Which I can't believe would be true. And the last time I had water coming through into my bathroom (November 2012) I spoke to him and he said it must be coming from the roof! Conveniently bypassing his place on the way... When I told my dad about this leak he said someone would have to source the leak and they'd have to get into his flat to find it. And I doubt he would let anyone in to lift his floorboards to determine the reason for this particular leak. So I was stuck, worrying that it would happen again. I was told by the legal representative (through my insurance) that there was nothing that could be done by the council unless it was an environmental health risk (although judging by my recent conversations with the council, they won't do squat if you own your own place, even if it is potentially dangerous!). And I left it because it kept happening repeatedly, and I was scared that if I got it done up it would happen again... And talking to this guy is like banging your head off a brick wall. And this was prior to the kitchen incident (which has also had 3 leaks to date, caused by burst pipes and then this most recent incident).

I did say what the recent kitchen incident was caused by, right at the start of this thread. The leak was caused by his washing machine - he disconnected the washing machine to put in a new one and apparently did not realise that there would be residual water left in it, and it went all over the floor, and then started dripping through my light fitting and then above the door frames. I can smell a mouldy odour now that wasn't there prior to this incident, so I'm probably correct in thinking that it has something to do with water lying around. Perhaps even water that is still under his floor tiles, because to my knowledge he has not lifted them and allowed the area to dry out. My other neighbour who I spoke to next week was telling me what a state of disrepair his flat is in and I can well believe it (I've seen some of it myself when I've been up there speaking to him but not been in all the rooms).

As I said to the insurance handler, I hope to hell he never gets a water bed... ray:

I guess this latest incident was the last straw. Right now, I'm ready to just pay the entire lot and put this place up for sale. Mentally, I can't handle the stress and constant worry of what else might happen. I was woken up this morning by the sound of him arguing loudly on the phone with someone, and it sounded like he owes this person money or something. There was a lot of f words. So, I doubt he'll pay up for the damage to my home due to the goodness of his heart, let alone any kind of civic responsibility. I'm not sure if it's worth pursuing any kind of claim against him (small court). If I have to pay for it will it even be worth it. But I'll have a look at the links, thank you.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Neighbour's continuing damage to my home

you may have a case of private nuisance under the right to quiet enjoyment act.

WDNE. :grin: