Flooded neighbors from below: what to do to eliminate claims from their side

Procedure

First: As soon as you find that you are leaking, leaking or whipping, try to stop the flood. If the leak occurred through your fault (the battery / pipe burst or the tap dripped), and you find a leak, try to stop it as soon as possible - for this you can look for stopcocks on adjacent pipes or in the riser. After blocking the pipes, remove the water with rags.

Second: Call the ZhEK, HOA or another management company, report the fact of the bay and call the engineer in the contractor responsible for your house.

Third: If the source of the leak is unknown, then you may not be the culprit of the accident. As soon as the water is collected and the disaster is stopped, you can start looking for the guilty, because they will bear all the responsibility and costs for restoring the damaged property.

Fourth: If you previously insured an apartment, be sure to report the fact of flooding to the insurance company. And if the fault is yours, then the insurance company, after assessing the damage, will pay the victims.

Fifth: If it is not your fault in what happened, but you and the neighbors from below were flooded, in this case it is worth fixing the fact of what happened, so that in the future, during the trial, there would be something to prove your innocence.

Sixth: With the employees of the organization serving your home, it is worth drawing up a statement of damage and actual damage with a detailed indication of the affected property

It is important to indicate the reason for the breakthrough and, ideally, attach a photo of the damaged housing to the completed act, it is also very important that the document be signed by the engineer of the operating organization. It should be understood that the house riser is the responsibility of this very organization

Damage assessment

Damage assessment is best carried out with experts from specialized organizations, they will help to accurately assess the cost of damaged property and calculate the cost of restoration. Remember, the more evidence the better, so feel free to take pictures.

If you flooded your neighbors, then the best solution to this issue would be a pre-trial settlement.You should only go to court if you fundamentally disagree with the damage assessment. But still, if you managed to agree amicably with your neighbors, do not forget to draw up the agreement in paper form in order to avoid further troubles.

If, nevertheless, you decide to go to court, remember that the property is assessed not at the market price, but taking into account wear and tear. Therefore, a court decision may oblige you not to buy new equipment, but only to pay for its repair.

Ekaterina Nikitina, General Director of the PRO Exchange agency

What to do if you are unlucky with your neighbors: move or fight for your rights?

In any new building there are citizens who have a special talent to get on their nerves. What to do if their behavior goes beyond the bounds of decency?

What to do if you were flooded by neighbors from above, and how to get compensation?

Flooded neighbors? The situation is not pleasant, but the main thing is not to panic. We figure out what to do to "get out of the water" and compensate for the damage caused to the home.

What to do if you flooded the neighbors from below through no fault of your own?

Solving the issue peacefully

A sane person will not deliberately arrange constant floods for the neighbors below. Before going to court, you can try to negotiate with the neighbors peacefully. Within 2-3 days after the emergency, it is worth meeting with the perpetrators for a peaceful resolution of the issue. At the time of the meeting, the damage should already be fully calculated, and the amount of necessary repair work should be scheduled.

If the neighbors agree to this method of resolving the issue, their consent must be recorded. There are cases when the perpetrator immediately pays the entire amount to the victim. Often the payment is extended over a long period.

The procedure for fixing the contract:

• A written agreement is drawn up between the parties, the document is notarized (regardless of the warmth of relations with the neighbors who flooded).
• An estimate is attached to the document indicating the necessary work. The document is signed by the injured and the guilty parties.

Important! With systematic flooding from above, a peaceful solution to the problem is aggravated by an increase in the amount of damage caused. In such cases, it is better to go to court

How to determine the culprit of the flood

In order to reimburse future repair costs, it is necessary to determine who is to blame for the flooding of your apartment. So, the water is blocked, nothing is flowing anymore, but the neighbors do not admit their fault and say that they had nothing to do with it and they did not flood you. If the neighbors are loyal and allow you into their apartment, we carefully look and look for a leak. By the source of the leak, we determine the culprit of the incident:

If a breakdown of a tap, siphon, mixer, battery is visible, then the upstairs neighbors who flooded you are clearly to blame, since the consumer of water and heat is responsible for the malfunction of the final water supply and heating devices.

The water supply riser broke through to the first tap that shuts off the water in the apartment (that is, this part of the pipe where the consumer could not intervene) - the organization managing the house (HOA, UK) is to blame.

A pipe burst after the first blocking device in the apartment - we present our claims for compensation for damage from flooding to the neighbors from the top floor. In this case, they are the answer.

How to fix the flooding of the apartment

So, you came home, you see that you were flooded: it is flowing from the ceiling and there are large stains on it and you understand that the reason for this is the neighbors from above.What to do after you have asked the plumber to turn off the riser? It will be necessary to perform the following actions to fix the fact of flooding:

We shoot on a camera, phone, video recorder a leak from the ceiling and its consequences. It is better to shoot a video, making comments about the date and place of shooting. This video may be useful to you in court if the neighbors begin to refuse that it was they who flooded you.

We call representatives of the HOA or the management company to draw up an act of flooding. If representatives of the organization managing the house ignored you (for example, everything happened on a weekend or holiday), we call two witnesses and draw up an act of flooding the apartment on our own.

If the living neighbors who flooded you above do not mind letting the commission or you and witnesses come to their place, the place of the water leak is described in the act and photographs (video) of the accident site are taken.

Go to court if they don't want to pay

If it was not possible to agree with a neighbor, you will have to go to court. Cases on damages are considered by district and magistrate judges. The difference lies in the price of the claim: up to 50,000 rubles are considered by magistrates, the rest - by district ones.

Submission deadlines

There are no time limits in codes. There is a statute of limitations. It means that after 3 years from the moment a problem arose or a violation of human rights was discovered, the perpetrator will be able to avoid liability. It will be enough for him to announce at the court session the request to apply the time limit. The judge will be forced to dismiss the case.

The expiration of the statute of limitations does not prevent the victim from filing a lawsuit.The application will be accepted and scheduled for consideration. If the defendant does not pay attention to this circumstance, then a decision on the recovery of damages may be made. It is better not to count on absent-mindedness, illiteracy of the culprit, he is interested in avoiding big expenses.

You should also not delay sending a claim. The longer the issue is postponed, the more difficult it is to prove the extent of the harm, the guilt of the neighbor.

List of documents

The judge will need:

1. Statement of claim. It is made according to the pattern. It can be found in courts at information stands, on the Internet.
2. Documents on the ownership of the applicant's apartment.
3. Receipt for payment of state duty. It is calculated according to the formulas contained in Article 333.19 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. If the amount of damage is 20,000 rubles, then the state duty cannot be less than 400 rubles and more than 4% of the declared value. When applying to a justice of the peace, it is 50% of the calculated one.
4. Evidence of flooding:

• acts of inspection of the premises, drawn up by the management company, to the victims. It is not forbidden to attach both of these documents at the same time;
• conclusions of experts, appraisers on the causes of the accident, the resulting damage. The papers describe the actions of the latter step by step;
• certificates, notifications about the impossibility of restoring household appliances due to getting wet;
• written eyewitness accounts. They can be neighbors, relatives of the plaintiff. Parents, adult children will be interviewed by the judge. Their interest in the fate of the victim will not interfere with confirming the harm done. Relatives should not be entered in the act of inspecting housing;
• photographs, videos. They must be of high quality, allowing you to see the details;
• receipts, estimates, statements of repairs.It is better not to do it before the court, because during the forensic examination it may be necessary to inspect the plaster, floor screed, you will have to destroy part of the ceiling if the pipe passing through it has leaked.

These documents must be in 2 copies, one of them is sent to the defendant. You can send them yourself to the address of the culprit, but then the court will need confirmation in the form of a mail notification. The applicant must assess the harm.

If the property is insured, these documents will be needed for the insurance company.

How to file a claim

The document is drawn up on a sheet of A4 paper in two copies. Be sure to follow the conditions:

The claim is addressed to the district, world court. Its name is located in the upper right corner of the document. Under it contains the data of the plaintiff (applicant) with the address, phone number, e-mail. Then information about the defendant is reported: his last name, first name, patronymic, address. Claims against unidentified people will not be accepted. If the apartment of the perpetrator is rented out, the tenants do not disclose their names, you will have to write an application addressed to the owner of the premises.
After the title, describe the essence of the problem. The presentation must be consistent and understandable. It is better to start from the moment of the incident, describe your actions: reporting the accident to the Criminal Code, attempts to contact neighbors, how long the water flowed, what happened in the apartment. For example: the stretch ceiling sagged, the wallpaper peeled off, the parquet swelled. List the value of each damaged item.

Pay attention to the attempts to peacefully resolve the conflict, the results achieved.
The document ends with the word “please”, after which the requirements are indicated.For example: recover the cost of burned-out equipment, pay for repairs, replacement of wallpaper, floor

Compensate for the work of an appraisal company, a lawyer. If the incident caused strong feelings and the person ended up in the hospital, you can ask to compensate for moral damage.

Pipe burst: flooded neighbors, who is to blame

With long-term use of heating devices, dilapidated and malfunctioning pipes, and for a number of other reasons, citizens can unwittingly become the culprits of the gulf of neighbors from below.

Responsibility for the incident may lie with the tenant, or with the company maintaining the home, depending on the status of the housing:

Privatized apartment

In this case, the owner compensates the losses to the neighbors below, since he is obliged to repair communications in a timely manner. However, there is a chance to avoid punishment if the breakthrough occurred due to improper installation of the heating system, of which the pipe is a part. In this case, it is possible to involve the person who installed the system.

public housing

The responsibility for checking and maintaining communications lies with the management company. The organization is required to periodically conduct system reviews, the results of which are recorded in the documents. If the premises were flooded from below due to a failure by the company, the damage will be recovered from it. But if the tenant voluntarily made changes to the systems, changed batteries, installed pipes, he himself will be responsible for what happened.

If the heating riser breaks

In such a situation, the managing organization will be responsible, since the heating riser belongs to the common property, and the responsibility for the functioning of such property lies with the specified organization.Replacing risers is prohibited if citizens have committed actions that violate the integrity of the heating riser, they will be responsible if they flooded the room located below the floor.

When the apartment of citizens living below was flooded, it is necessary to deal with the problem as quickly as possible. Consistent action will establish justice and secure the innocent party.

Article author:
Petr Romanovsky, lawyer

Work experience 15 years, specialization - housing disputes, family, inheritance, land, criminal cases.

Useful information on the bay of the apartment

• If the apartment was flooded through the fault of housing and communal services
• Court practice on flooding an apartment by neighbors
• Compensation for damage during the bay of the apartment
• Statement of claim for the bay of the apartment
• Independent assessment of damage to the apartment after the bay
• Drawing up an act on the bay of the apartment
• State independent examination of the apartment after the bay
• Flooding apartment insurance
• If the neighbors were flooded from below
• Restoration repair after the bay of the apartment

Responsibility for flooding a neighbor

If a citizen is guilty, then you have to pay. There is no way to get rid of the refund. Civil law in this situation provides for the only type of liability - material. However, if the parties have managed to conclude an amicable agreement, the damage can also be compensated in kind, for example, by repairing the apartment, repairing furniture and appliances, or buying a new one.

Only the court has the right to determine the amount of damage on the basis of the evidence presented.The defendant may appeal such a decision by way of appeal, cassation and even supervision (but only within the time limits established by law).

What to do if the neighbors from above are flooded

What to do if neighbors flood? The first thing to do is to draw up an act. That is, to document the fact that you were flooded by neighbors from above. Even if your neighbors admit this fact and their guilt, an act must be drawn up, since in the future they may change their mind and refuse to pay damages.

The act can not be drawn up if your neighbors sign a receipt in which they indicate the amount of damage. But it is better not to neglect this document.

Act on the fact of flooding by neighbors

How to draw up an act, what are the deadlines for drawing up an act? The act must be drawn up immediately upon the fact of the incident or after it, but as soon as possible. This document is drawn up and signed in the presence of a commission, which should include:

• the owner (or his representative) of the flooded apartment;
• the owner (or his representative, for example, a tenant) of the apartment from which the leak occurred;
• management company representatives. It is better if the technical specialist of the management company is included in this commission.

Keep in mind that home maintenance is carried out by only one specific management company. Its representatives should be members of the commission. In the act, upon the fact of flooding, the following information should be indicated:

The very fact of flooding and damage

Be sure to indicate exactly where the leak occurred, what damage to property, the amount of flooding and damage.It will be correct if you separately indicate and write down all the damage: their dimensions on the ceiling or ceiling covering, walls, a list of all other damage that occurred as a result of flooding, for example, furniture, appliances, other items, indicating brands, names and other identifying signs. Be sure to indicate the extent of damage.

Cause of flooding

This item must be in the act. This may determine who should pay damages and to what extent. Such reasons may be: an unattended bath or sink, a leak in the heating riser, sewerage, cold or hot water supply, etc.

Causal relationship between flood damage and the cause of this incident

The act should indicate that the damage that you indicated is the result of a leak. The act of the fact that the neighbors flooded you must be signed by all members of the commission present. In case of refusal to sign any of them, this fact is recorded in the act.

Who is to blame if the neighbors flooded

After drawing up the act, it is necessary to determine the culprit of the flood. The Civil Code (in Article 290), the Housing Code (in Article 36) and the Rules for the maintenance of common property in an apartment building (in Section 1) provide for the following principles for determining the perpetrators:

1. The management company is responsible for the water supply risers up to the shut-off and control valve or the first shut-off device, which are located on the outlets from the risers. The owner or tenant is responsible for all equipment, wiring and faucets that are located after the shut-off valves or the first disconnect device.
2. The managing organization is responsible for the heating system (risers, heating radiators, shut-off and control equipment and other equipment that is located on these networks). In judicial practice, radiators, risers, heated towel rails are recognized as the property of an apartment building and are maintained, installed and repaired by the management company. Thus, the owner is not responsible for them. The exception is cases if the owner of the apartment installed or repaired this equipment on his own.

That is, depending on who is responsible for the equipment or element that caused your apartment to be flooded by neighbors, the blame lies with either the owner or the management company.

Making claims against the culprit of flooding

Who to contact if neighbors flood? After determining the culprit, it is necessary to present claims for damages. There are two development options if you are flooded by neighbors:

• The parties determine the amount of damage, and the perpetrator is voluntarily ready to compensate him. In this case, record this fact in writing by an act or agreement, which will indicate the amount and terms of compensation.
• The perpetrator refuses to pay damages. In this case, it is necessary to involve an independent expert organization to determine and record the amount of damage and file a claim with the court.

They flooded the apartment one floor below - your actions and rights under the law

Even if a flood is found in the apartment, do not panic and do not despair. All problems are fixable and this one is no exception. Approach the problem with a cool head.

Shut off light and water

The first and important steps in flooding neighbors from below are turning off the electricity and blocking the pipe through which water enters your apartment. If the breakdown is in your apartment, then the water will stop coming. If then you come from outside, you will understand that you need to look for the problem above and turn off the water supply in the entire entrance. Turning off the power supply eliminates the risk of short circuits and electric shock to people through spilled liquid.

When all cracks and seams are carefully sealed in the floor, and drain holes are placed in the right places, the risk of flooding neighbors from below is reduced to zero. Such protection is especially useful for people who forget to turn off the tap when filling the bath.

Call emergency service

If there is a breakdown that cannot be repaired by yourself, contact the emergency service. They will help, even if the neighbors flooded on a weekend.

Find out who's to blame

Before sinning on your forgetfulness, establish the true cause of the flood. In the cases described below, the fault lies solely with the management company. Breakthroughs include:

• sewer riser;
• water pipe stand;
• central heating system.

The damage caused by one of these cases, according to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 491 of 13.08.2006, is compensated by the organization managing the houses.

The owner of the dwelling is responsible for the ceiling flooded by the neighbors, if the cause is:

• faulty plumbing;
• breakdown of a washing machine or dishwasher;
• forgotten faucet in the bathroom or kitchen.

However, if the device or part of the plumbing was defective initially and installed recently, the fault is shifted to the seller of this product. Her proof will be a check, if it was preserved after the purchase.

In the case of tenants living in the premises, they become the perpetrators of the flood.

But this is only proven if there is a lease agreement.

To establish the true causes of flooding of neighbors, contact an independent organization that conducts an examination of the reasons for the flooding of the apartment. Do this after two or three days, as the marks do not appear immediately. Also, before inviting experts, representatives of the managing organization should come and draw up an act on flooding, in which they indicate the correct reasons, in their opinion.

Assess the damage

Self-assessment of damage involves inspecting a neighbor's apartment, determining damaged places and things, assessing the cost of building materials to restore the premises to its original form.

Based on the information received, draw conclusions about the amount of compensation and discuss it with a neighbor. Having found a compromise, fix the results on paper in the form of a receipt so that the other party does not change their mind.

If you cannot agree on a specific figure, use the services of an independent appraiser. He will conduct an examination and establish the market value of all damaged items and materials. For example, if in a flooded the apartment has a stretch ceiling, then you only need to compensate for the work of the company that installed it.

She will extract the water, dry it and return it to its place. The elasticity of the film allows water to accumulate inside, so the furniture and walls in a flooded apartment with a stretch ceiling remain dry.

Draw up an act

The act of flooding the apartment is drawn up by an authorized person of the management company.

When compiling it, both a representative of the flooded premises and a representative of the apartment in which the flood began should be present.

The act indicates the presence of flooding, the damaged area, the alleged cause.

When the drafting of the act is completed, familiarize yourself with its contents and if you do not agree with the indicated reasons for flooding, indicate your own in it. Keep one copy for yourself, the other is taken by an authorized person of the company.

We are suing the neighbors who flooded

Before contacting a lawyer or lawyer, ordering an examination or going to court, try to negotiate with the neighbors who flooded you. Estimate the real damage to restore your apartment, which suffered from flooding and report the resulting amount to the culprit of the event.

If the tenants from above declare that the amount of damage calculated by you is overstated, then this is already a good signal for resolving the problem without a trial. This means that people understand their guilt, they are ready to make amends for it, but they have doubts about your honesty. Try to dissuade them: offer to jointly calculate the upcoming costs of repairing an apartment, buying furniture, or offer to hire an expert together to calculate the cost of such costs.

If the neighbors living upstairs understand their fault, admit that they flooded your apartment, but say that they do not have so much money to cover the damage at a time, go to meet them and offer to pay in installments in installments as repairs are completed. In this case, it is better to draw up an appropriate receipt or agreement with the neighbors that they admit the fault in flooding the apartment and agree to pay such and such a sum of money in compensation for damage in such and such a period according to the established schedule.

But, if your opponents from above do not make contact, do not see their guilt, do not believe your calculations of damage, you have only one way - to court. Therefore, let's take a step-by-step look at your next steps in judicial compensation for damage:

First, we turn to an independent expert organization to obtain a commodity expertise to determine the cost of restoring a flooded apartment, as well as the cost of damaged furniture and household appliances. The expert will set the day of departure, notify the guilty neighbors about the date of the examination, come to the apartment, photograph and describe the damage, and, based on the result of his work, in a few days, will give you an expert opinion. In terms of cost, the work of an expert can cost you 10-30 thousand rubles (depending on the region where the apartment is located and the amount of damage).

We independently prepare a statement of claim to go to court or contact a lawyer who specializes in cases of compensation for damage to citizens. The work of a lawyer in a trial in such a case can cost from 20 to 100 thousand rubles, and even more (depending on the city and the complexity of the process). We pay the state duty for going to court, which is calculated from the amount of your claims against the defendant. So, with the amount of claims in the region of 100 thousand rubles, the state duty will be 3 thousand rubles. The state duty calculator can be found on the Internet and look at it - what amount of money for the state duty to prepare for filing a lawsuit in court.

Litigation in cases of this category usually lasts several months. If an expert examination is appointed on the case, the trial may last six months or more.If the defendant, the upstairs neighbor, does not agree with the amount of your claims for damages, a forensic commodity examination will be appointed in the case. If the defendant is generally against the fact that the flooding was due to his fault, the court may order an expert examination to determine the cause of the flooding of the apartment.

Execution of a court decision - receiving money from neighbors from above

It is clear that if you failed to negotiate with your opponent without a trial, then it is unlikely that he will agree to voluntarily pay money by court order. Yes, with all your expenses.

Therefore, at the end of the process, we receive a writ of execution in court (in case a lawyer does not collect money from you) and contact the bailiff service at the place of registration of the defendant (usually in the same area where the apartment is located). We provide bank details to the bailiff.

After completing these actions, we are waiting for the receipt of money won from neighbors from above to our current account (bank card). If there is no money within two months, it is advisable to contact the bailiff and find out the reason for the non-execution of the court decision. It may happen that the debtor does not work, does not own a car, does not have a bank account. In this case, you should insist that the bailiff go to the debtor's apartment, describe and seize all more or less valuable property from it.

Since the damage in such cases usually does not amount to very large amounts, the property located on top of the apartment (furniture, household and computer equipment, jewelry, etc.) may well be enough after the sale as part of enforcement proceedings to compensate for the damage caused to them.

Lawyer Gennady Efremov

Listen to the author of this site - lawyer Efremov. He talks about what to do if you are flooded by neighbors from above: