What to do if you flood your neighbors below and is it possible not to pay for the damage caused?

General mobilization

Act with a cool head - quickly and calmly. We tell you point by point what to do.

• First, if you are at work or visiting, estimate how long it will take to be home
  .

If it takes a very long time, think that perhaps one of your relatives will be able to get to the apartment faster. In any case, call the affected neighbors back and tell them what time you or someone you know will appear at home. Does it turn out bad in any case? Arrange with them to call a plumber from the emergency dispatch service. After all, if the problem is serious and there is a lot of flooding, you urgently need to shut off the riser.

• If your apartment is insured while you are driving home, call the insurance company
  and describe the situation.

• When you arrive home, turn off the electricity (on the panel) and turn off the valves on the hot and cold water risers in the apartment
  . Then immediately call the management company (MC) and the emergency dispatch service, if the neighbors have not already done so.

Is your home connected to the free social network Together? Then you can quickly contact your management company and neighbors online, even if you don’t have their phone numbers. Text the victims that you are on your way and call a plumber at home.

• Collect water from your floor
  . Call for help from everyone who is nearby - family, friends. The faster you eliminate puddles, the less liquid will have time to flow down.

• When you're finished, go down to the victims. Offer help
  if needed.

Maybe you need to move something heavy or wipe off moisture from furniture. With a small leak, only the ceiling has time to get wet; with a large leak, the walls, furniture, and floor also get wet. But your participation will in any case bring benefits: it will endear you to your neighbors. By the way, the opposite happens: neighbors can offer their help to eliminate the flooding as quickly as possible. If you come across such kind people, rejoice, agree and thank them.

• While you are visiting flooded victims, evaluate the actual damage caused to the apartment and things . Ask to take photographs of the condition of the home.

This will be useful for confirmation if the neighbor decides to sue. This way you will protect yourself from falsifying facts and paying for non-existent damage.

• Meet the plumber and representatives from the management company and service organization. Together with them, inspect the location of the leak
  .

• When the commission goes to the injured party, go down with them and supervise the preparation of the flooding report
  .

This is important if your neighbor is cunning and confrontational. By being present when the act is drawn up, you will not allow anything that was not damaged to be included in the damage caused.

• If the established cause of the flood confirms your guilt, agree on the amount of compensation with your neighbor
  .

Try to come to an agreement on a humane basis. Explain that this is only what it seems: now I’ll go to court and get the money back! But in fact, it’s a long and tedious task that requires time, money and effort. And from both the culprit and the victim.

Calculate how much repairs will cost and how much money will be needed to fix broken equipment. If you can reach a compromise, draw up an agreement on the amount of damage, and sign a receipt directly when transferring the money.

Keep in mind that the agreement is not a guarantee that the neighbor will not conduct an independent examination and ask for a different amount. He is entitled to full compensation for damages.

• If you can’t reach an amicable agreement, ask that information about any disagreements that have arisen be included in the document
  .

In this case we are talking about a list of damages. The neighbor may insist on his version, but you, seeing that he wants to further update the repairs at your expense, have the right to disagree.

We will tell you below how to determine the amount of payment for the damage caused. In the meantime, let's return to the question of the guilty.

The neighbors below were flooded - what to do and how much to pay (how to calculate)

According to statistics, only 15% of floods in apartment buildings occur due to roof leaks, the remaining 85% are due to the fault of neighbors above and due to faulty communications. In any case, a “flood” in a neighbor’s apartment becomes an emergency for both the victims and the perpetrators. In addition, the Bay of Neighbors is an event with a legal aspect, since people living nearby cannot always come to an agreement peacefully. The culprit is preoccupied with the idea of ​​how not to pay, and the victims try to “squeeze” the maximum possible financial compensation from the culprit.

1. Don’t take your neighbors’ word for it - be sure to go to them and see for yourself that the victims are telling the truth and are not being cunning, trying to lure as much money from the culprit as possible.
2. Determine an adequate amount of damages that will satisfy both parties. Here you can resort to the services of an independent appraiser.
3. Record the oral agreement with a receipt, in which you must indicate the amount of compensation for damage, the waiver of claims on the part of the injured neighbor, indicate the date of signing, the surnames, first names and patronymics of the signatories and their exact residential addresses. It is advisable that when concluding an oral agreement, witnesses from both parties are present; their signatures must be on the receipt. Documentary evidence of damage caused (photos, copies of receipts, contracts for the provision of repair services) must be attached to the receipt.

Whose fault?

It is not at all necessary that you caused the leak. The following may also be held responsible for what happened:

• Your neighbors
  are upstairs or to the side.

This is when you yourself have become a victim of flooding and water has leaked through your apartment to the lower floors.

• A service organization hired by your management company, or the management company itself
  (depending on the specific terms of the agreement concluded between them)

This is if an old rusty communal pipe burst and was not replaced in time.
It is necessary to distinguish between the pipeline system inside the apartment and the one that applies to the entire house. If something happened to the general system - it exploded in the sewer or central heating - you have nothing to do with it. Compensation can be demanded from all of these persons. To do this, you need to assess the amount of damage and the amount of compensation. The same must be done when you are at fault, but it was not possible to agree on compensation with your neighbor.

What to do if your neighbors below are flooded

Any lawyer can easily describe for a citizen an algorithm of actions in case of flooding of his apartment.
In this situation, everything is more or less simple and clear. However, when citizens whose neighbors downstairs were flooded seek qualified legal assistance, most lawyers try to quickly get rid of such potential clients. The practice has developed that in most cases, neighbors above in the event of flooding are found guilty and the damage caused is recovered from them through judicial or other means. The position of the “guilty” party in any case is very precarious. Therefore, experienced lawyers, in order to avoid failure (this significantly affects their reputation and future fees), do not risk taking on such cases. After all, winning is always more pleasant. However, what to do in this situation for a citizen who has to pay a considerable amount of money is an open question. However, it is advisable to take into account the cause of flooding. If the neighbors above forgot to turn off the tap, and the flooding was their fault, then it’s probably better to come to an agreement. But if the cause of the flooding was a burst battery or riser, which the owner of the apartment never touched, then the fault of the neighbors above is very doubtful.

Independent assessment

To determine the damages caused and calculate the amount of compensation, you need to invite an independent expert. You can find the nearest inspection companies on the Internet. Just make sure that the company you choose has a professional liability insurance policy. And also that it be a member of a self-regulatory organization of appraisers.

The expert's services will be paid for by the one who is most interested in them. And if you agree, you can split the costs in half.

The expert will record the condition of the flooded apartment: take photographs and take measurements. And he will give you a conclusion-report, which will indicate the amount of damage and its compensation.

The neighbors below were flooded, what to do forum

In other words, if you flooded your neighbors below through no fault of your own, but your battery burst, then the owner of the apartment will be responsible for this. If you flooded your neighbors from below, and they sued, and a faulty faucet is to blame for the flooding. Then you, that is, the employer, will have to compensate for the damage. Because the apartment was flooded due to untimely maintenance carried out by the tenant. We flooded our neighbors, and we admit our guilt. Often there is no need to go anywhere. We don't like going to court. Agree and jointly calculate the damage you have caused.

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If this is the reason why you flooded your neighbors, then you need to unite with them and all the victims and draw up a collective statement addressed to the culprit. Because the fact that you flooded the apartment from below is to blame for his negligent attitude towards his direct responsibilities. The law stipulates not only the right, but also the need for housing and communal services or the management company to promptly check the operation and repair of common house equipment, and not wait until the neighbors’ apartment, including yours, is flooded. If you flooded your neighbors below, and the apartment does not belong to you.

Judicially

Well, what if nothing convinced your neighbor and he still decided to sue you? We'll have to participate in this.

There is hardly any need to worry too much. The court will rely only on evidence: photos and videos taken by an independent expert. This means that it will no longer be possible to invent something beyond measure.

It must be taken into account that if the plaintiff orders the assessment, he may abuse his right and show the appraiser more damage than actually occurred. Therefore, be sure to be present during the inspection.

Change the taps on time, do not forget to turn off the water, and may the dry floor and happy neighbors below be with you!

Compensation for losses

If the flooding occurred due to your forgetfulness, inform the injured party of your readiness to compensate for the damage caused . It is worth noting that if the case goes to court, you will face much greater expenses. Legal costs are added to the amount of expenses. If you prefer to pay in cash, do not forget to provide a receipt confirming that there have been no claims from neighbors and that funds have been received.

Thus, when an apartment is flooded from below, it is important to identify the cause as quickly as possible and take immediate action.

We flooded the neighbors below - what to do if it flooded and who is to blame

If you flooded your neighbor’s apartment through negligence or due to equipment malfunction, you will certainly need qualified legal assistance to quickly resolve the conflict that has arisen. A lawyer from the Center for Independent Expertise will give a competent answer to the question of what to do if the neighbors below are flooded.

The best solution in this situation is to stand up for your interests. Try to resolve the conflict peacefully. If the neighbor is ready to accommodate, be sure to make a receipt, indicate the amount and purpose of compensation. Give the money only after the neighbor signs the document and notes in it that he no longer has any claims against you.

What to do if you flood your neighbors below

An analysis of judicial practice on this issue shows that in legal disputes there is a presumption of guilt of the defendant. This means that in most cases the court will oblige the defendant to compensate for damages if he does not provide compelling evidence of his innocence .

1. The flood occurred due to the fault of the tenants (tenants) of the apartment (contractual relations must be formalized in accordance with the law).
2. The leak is caused by poor quality equipment . If this fact is confirmed by an examination, then the seller of the defective product must compensate for the damage. The owner must keep receipts confirming the purchase.
3. The flood is caused by poor-quality repair work or installation of equipment carried out by a hired organization or entrepreneur . The fact that repairs have been carried out must be confirmed by a contract concluded between the owner and the person who performed the work.

The neighbors below were flooded, what to do forum

Our neighbor above us from the 9th floor heated the riser to the 4th floor. A report was drawn up and a leak from the ceiling was recorded. She didn’t even apologize, also saving money on plumbing and being afraid of the DEZ (since she had an illegal tap into a pipe with hot water) 2 times she pulled my husband with a request to fix everything for her. But my proud one is silent, running around, fixing things for free.

First, you need to draw up an act of flooding, in the presence of a representative of the management company, you who flooded your neighbors. You can call more neighbors as witnesses. The report should describe in great detail all the damage, as well as whose fault the flooding occurred. Neighbors who flooded must write their name and signature on this act. And yet, we were also not at home when it was flooded. But they came, there was water everywhere, and they immediately came running from the Criminal Code. They have no right to refuse you! Get them, call them. It won’t help - as already advised, write a statement “I ask you to draw up an act.” Everything needs to be done quickly. While everything is wet, take detailed photos.