Advise required re water damage in apartment

Birdsong

hi

Am looking for some advice, I live in a ground floor apartment today I come home to my apartment & I noticed a water stain on the ceiling & the wall in kitchen & I am so disappointed. Water damage is not good & can only get worse.

A bit of background, a number of years ago was flooded by the apartment above me. Got the damage sorted, however there no admission by the landlord or tenants above me. I had to pay all repairs. There is a new owner in apartment above me now.

I am looking for advise on the best steps, do I approach the owner directly, go through the management company, or involve a solicitor from the outset. The outcome I want is the fault in the upstairs apartment repaired, the water must be coming from there - its not coming from my tank etc, different side of apartment & I do not want to be out of pocket for repairs / painting etc this time round.

Paulw

Contact your management agent and notify them.

Water damage like that may be structural, so the management company should investigate.

DainBramage

hi..

was in the exact same situation to you several years ago.

Approach your neighbours and as ask them to check for a leak, the situation will only get worse if you do nothing. There might be a leak on one of the pipes feeding your boiler.

Get on to the management company asap. If they are any use, they will have a plumber on call so they should send someone out to investigate

Any damage should be covered by your block insurance for both you and your neighbour, that is if the insurer thinks neither of ye were responsible. It was in my case anyhow. (It took 8 months before I received compensation.)

Paulw

DainBramage wrote: »

Any damage should be covered by your block insurance for both you and your neighbour, that is if the insurer thinks neither of ye were responsible.

Many block insurance policies have a very large excess for water damage. For some it's €5,000, for some it's as high as €10,000. You may not be able to claim at all. But, if the damage is caused by the unit above then they should be liable for the cost of repairs. While they should come to an agreement to pay, the worst case scenario is that you need to take a civil case against them.

tinkerbell

Paulw wrote: »

Many block insurance policies have a very large excess for water damage. For some it's €5,000, for some it's as high as €10,000. You may not be able to claim at all. But, if the damage is caused by the unit above then they should be liable for the cost of repairs. While they should come to an agreement to pay, the worst case scenario is that you need to take a civil case against them.

Unless the apartment above the OP intentionally flooded the place, they are not liable for any repairs to the property below them, they are only liable for their OWN repairs in order to fix the leak so that it doesn't continue to occur.

The only person the ground floor apartment can go after for payment of THEIR repairs is the management company block insurance (as this is what it is for) and then it depends on the excess for water damage (as you have said) or if the OP can agree something with the management company.

Birdsong

Thanks for all the advise, will contact the Mgt company first thing in the morning, they are good enough alright. Have taken photos too & it seems to be getting worse. There is a high excess for flooding unfortunatley