Water Damage (lots of damage) no Insurance!

Hi there,

I'm on the top floor of an office block, came in this morning to find a boiler in the kitchen had over heated at the weekend, exploded and leaked into here and both downstairs floors destroying suspended ceilings & carpets etc.

Both business's have been closed until further notice as their heating is based on electrical storage heaters and the places look pretty bad also.

Landlord says it's not his problem as the whole 3rd floor was taken exclusively by us with no 'common area' to be maintained by him ( I argued it was the same as toilets and fixed furniture etc. and should be covered by him )

We had a dispute about something else with him before and refused to pay the annual 'service charges'.

Exact same thing happened 1 month ago with the kitchen boiler in the floor below us, and damaged the ground floor unit requiring an entire new floor & ceiling to be fitted.

No insurance here!!, who pays for the whole thing and loss of earnings etc. ?

If 'twas your boiler and you are responsible for it, then you pay.

I don't know what part of the country you are in, but I find it amazing that your landlord owns an office block, but does not have Insurance. In fact if he is mortgaged to a Bank, they would insist on Insurance been applied. The normal thing for Insurance, is that landlords effect the Insurance and then Invoice the tenants to have same reclaimed. This Insurance normally covers the extent of the premises but not your stock, papers, and any loss you might have.In fact it's not up to you to effect Insurance on the property as you do not own it. It's a landlord problem. As a matter of interest, let me know how you get on.

What does your Lease say?

When it happened a month ago downstairs did you not worry a bit about what might happen if it happened to you?

mf