Water damage - who pays?

[Wallop669]

Hi all HNY!

I am long term renting (1 year) a managed duplex appt in central Paris. It is fully furnished and usually used as a holiday let / short term work contract place. We are the top 2 floors and the landlord is on the bottom two, of a four floor building.

The other Sunday (20th) we returned home to find the washing machine upstairs had flooded our downstairs (later found out a major pipe had detached mid cycle). No major damage done, but I soon found the fuse box crackling & fizzing so immediately isolated the electrics. The box was soaked through.

Upon txt ing my account manager at the letting agents I was informed she would deal with it on Monday sometime around midday. I have 2 toddlers and it gets dark at 5pm. I wanted a safety check. Reasonable?

When pressed, she told me their electrician didn't work Sundays and the owner wouldn't pay for a call out. I called out a certified electrician myself, and he informed me that the damage amounted to €1300.

The manager at the agency (obviously tipped off by his staff) phoned me and authorised the payment, stating I could then deduct it from my next months rent.

The day after he then reversed his position saying I would have to claim it back off my multi risk insurance, which of course I have.

Question is, should I have to pay for the landlords machine damaging the landlords electrics and then use MY policy to claim it back?

Have I been naive in paying it, or is this how it is in France?

Best regards

Matt

[idun]

Hopefully your insurance company will pay up........ hopefully your insurance company will soon reclaim from the 'guilty' party if it is they who should pay????

French insurance, never did work as I ever expected it to. I have had some shocks over the years and sometimes have been flabbergasted as to what they will actually pay out for too and who the consider should be responsible for the 'event'.

[Chancer]

Whilst nonsensical it is usual for you to claim on your own insurance and let them chase the other insurers, it creates the maximum of work and paperwork for the maximum of people, if your insurer is confident that they can stiff someone another insurer with the bill then there will be no quibbles, electricians often offer to double the price and share the extra, if the blame cannot be placed or the other party is not insured for that risk then expect problems with your insurer, usually just ignoring you.

 

I am confused by your description of the building and its floors as it seems you have been flooded by something from the floor below [8-)]

[Chancer]

My French pal rents out several unfurnished houses, 3 year bail, he builds them all himself, one had a bath waste pipe jump out of the bonde after 18 months damaging the kitchen ceiling, kitchen units etc, now it was the landlords fixture that lsprung, probably my pal didnt tighten it enough, he just said "faire marcher votre assurance" and they did.

In a very similar incident on my rental property in the UK I described in detail on the other thread today a tenant brought down the kitchen ceiling and damaged kitchen units, flooring etc, now even though he had created the blockage in theory its removal would be my responsability but he contacted his insurers and they sent out a plumber to replace a part of the downpipe and they were going to pay up for all the damage to the fabric of the building because he had insured the building as well saying he was the owner, I think he was a scammer, but I had landlords insurance with the same company so they wanted me to claim, I chose not to, I let him live with the results of his negligence and eventually got a proportion of the repair costs from his deposit.

[Wallop669]

Hi, thanks Chancer - you're right I have made it sound like that. When I said 'the owner's washing machine' I meant the one he provides as part of the lease. It was our washing machine leaking into our downstairs.

As I have a large crèche bill to pay in Feb I am considering knocking the bill amount off the Feb rent and seeing how much more helpful he is then...I am slowly coming to terms with french paperwork & job creation schemes but it's challenging!

[mint]

Even if/when your insurance pay up, isn't there some sort of excess on your policy?

In that case, do you still have to pay something?  I hope you are not too out of pocket, Wallop.

[Chancer]

In which case I would consider you responsable and I think your insurers will accept that you are.

 

In case anyone thinks that is harsh it comes Under what is usually written into a renatl agreement about looking after the place being a bon père de famille, I know that most of us do go out leaving the washing machine running or set it ro run while we sleep but in terms of risk it is no different to going out leaving the bath taps running.

 

I dont have washing machines in any of the upper story flats and will not allow tenants to install their own or dishwashers. I have however created a launderette with commercial washer and dryer at the rear of the building beside my apartments, its free for tenants and short term renters to use, getting a lot of use at the moment from Australians avoiding the heat of their summer.