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04/05/2010 20:51:50 kp1968 Posts: 1	hi, just hoping some one can help... the ajoining house and been empty for at least 5 years, it has old wooden gutting which has been leaking and caused what i think is penetrating damp in both our house and that house.. i got intouch with enviromental services last year who to me to claim via the insurance of who ever owned the house next door. any way our house insurance told me i couldnt claim for damp, so i couldnt do any thing about it.. and suprise suprise i couldnt find the owner to fix the problem.. the house is now on the market thank god...my main question being can i claim for the damages that have occured to my house or am i going to have to fork out the thousands of pounds it going to cost to put all the rooms right?
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06/05/2010 10:13:53 www.clicklegalservices.co.uk Administrator Posts: 374	Thank you for the question. Most household buildings and contents policies cover "accidents" as such - and your insurers will have no doubt said to you that a gradual influx of water like this (a) does not amount to an "insured risk" and (b) the cause is from the neighbouring property anyway. I have to agree that the only probable option is to look to the neighbour and his insurers to foot the bill. The house being on the market raises some problems in that you may have issues against the new owner and with the new owner blaming the old. It could get "messy" in other words. I would suggest that you contact the Estate Agents - write to them detailing your complaint about the property. The advantage of doing this is that after the new owner buys, he cannot be said to have been unaware of the dispute as I think a request to pass a copy of the letter on to both the seller and buyer's solicitors could not be ignored. Keep a copy of the letter and send it recorded. Also, you can request office copies of the Land Register to see who the owner is, and quantify your claim (by reference to invoices for repairs/estimates etc) and simply write to the registered proprietor. I would even post a copy of the letter and estimates through his letterbox, stating exactly why you hold him responsible and requesting he pay you to put the damage right. Whilst I don't know how much it will cost to put matters right, damages in cases like this are often less than £5,000 and are classed as small claims for which legal costs are not recoverable. We offer a much reduced fixed fee service for this to deal with all matters through to a hearing, but whether this is worth your while depends on the value of the claim. Please see http://www.solicitorssouthport.com/page/small_claims_click_legal . As an alternative, you may wish to check if you have Legal expenses insurance with which to fund the claim - again there is a link to this, here: http://www.solicitors-negligence.com/page/legal_expenses_and_costs . If you find you have LEI, then we would be happy of cousre to see if we can deal with the matter for you, for free. If the case is worth over £5,000 and you can trace the owner, then we would certainly be prepared to look at the matter on a "No Win No Fee" basis. Again, some details found on http://www.solicitorssouthport.com/ Regards
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