Water leakage

Hello

A neighbour that lives underneath my flat in Spain asked for my home insurance as he claims there is a water leakage in his app that apparently is coming from my bathroom.

But here is the thing. Everything on my side is ok. There is no leakage in my app. What should be done in that case? 

I dont have any problem helping him out or taking responsibility if there is any. But I want to understand what should be done in that case. I ve suggested him to contact the bldng administrator as the plumbing might be bad in between my app and his app and I might not be responsible for that. 

What is Your advise.

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You can start the ball rolling ..by calling in a plumber ASAP.

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This seems to be a repeat of several recent cases - one only a couple of weeks ago.

Briefly - you should tell your neighbour he should notify his own insurers, not yours.  His insurers should deal with his damage and subrogate, claim back, against yours if you are legally liable.

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This a little like going to the butchers when your curtains don't fit.

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Baz1946 - if you reckon you know better what's your advice?

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Acer .. best advice would be to get a plumber in to have a look .. before contacting any insurance company .

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Yes acer, I do know better, as wind talker said 'Get a plumber in' this person, or someone has a water leak of some description which is supposed to be affecting them, so they ask the question on here saying they think it's not them, meanwhile where ever the leak is does it repair itself ? . First thing any good insurance company might ask is...'Have you called a plumber in?'...Meanwhile waiting for advice on the obvious never works, now does it?

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Baz1946 - not sure your comment is as soundly based as you seem to think.

Quite probably a plumber should be obtained, but only having agreed this action with the insurers, by the Property Administrator or the party whose property is being damaged, not by paulo500!  Why do you assume that paulo500 should assume responsibility for the damage?

Water quite often travels horizontally as well as vertically. Also quite often a water ingress might occur higher up a building, perhaps from the roof, above paulo500's property or someone else's place.   Or from communal pipework.  That has nothing to do with paulo500.

Even if the water ingress did come from paulo500's property under most legal systems there is a need to show negligence or gross negligence.  So where is the negligence on the part of paulo500? 

If, as seems likely, the Property Administrator arranges the insurance on the building it will be in joint names of all the owners.  This is the standard arrangement for muliple occupancy buildings.  So the insurers will be obliged to pay the repair cost regardless of where the leak emanated.  So in effect "responsibility" really doesn't matter!

It is important that the correct approach is adopted at the outset.  From the outline provided it's probably best that the neighbour should involve the Property Administrator if it's damage to his part of the building, or his own insurer if it's in respect of his own contents that's suffered the damage.  It is vital that the insurers are notified immediately to comply with the claims notification condition in the policy.  It is absolutely pointless for the two parties to argue. 

It is always best that the insurers either instruct the plumber themselves, or agree to this being done. 
 

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Acer don't know where you think I assumed paulo500 should assume responsibility for any water leaks, because I don't, unless of course the leak is in, or coming from their property, which surely anyone could work out that if you yourself can't find a leak then pass it over to someone in that profession, IE a plumber. All well and good waiting for someone else to give the okay to get in a plumber, meanwhile if there is a leak and it is bad waiting can only make it worse, folk have to take action for themselves rather then keep waiting on someone else. Why should anyone have to wait for someone else to give permission for simple task like getting in a plumber and sourcing the problem, if it turns out it's nowt to do with paulo500 they then have a stronger case to present to anyone who needs to know. Screw waiting for any insurance company or administrators to assist, we all know how Spain drags out anything when they can, but never the less I don't have this leak and if I did I wouldn't be waiting on someone else to let me know what to do or give advice.
This message was last edited by baz1946 on 12/2/2021.

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** EDITED - Against forum rules **

 

This message was last edited by eos_moderators on 12/3/2021 11:50:00 AM.

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Baz1946 - there are different perspectives in play here. 

I visit EOS primarily to learn Spanish stuff - there are a few excellent contributors. 

Occasionally I can return the compliment by advising, like on paulo500's problem where I have particular experience.

There is a very true saying "when the debate is lost slander becomes the weapon of the loser" that occurs too frequently (often connected to egos). 

I'm not saying that this applies to yourself, but I'm happy that the suggestions I've given to paulo500 are good and should be helpful.  For me that's "job done" and futher debate would be a sterile exercise.

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