Tenant negligence caused condo below to flood, is landlord responsible? (lease, renters insurance)
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Last year the condo building that our condo unit is in had the water shut off for repairs to the building. Our tenant had tried to turn on the bathroom faucet only to find that there was no water. He says that he tried turning it back and forth and eventually was not sure whether it was off or on. He then went out for a few hours and came back and the water was going full blast and overflowing. This water of course went through the floor to the downstairs unit. That owner came home a week or two later and informed all of us of the standing water in his unit. Our tenant was in the process of moving out and admitted the above situation and gave the owner of the condo below the $1K deductible that he needed to start the repairs with his insurance. We do not have insurance as we thought that the HOA insurance covered us, now we know better. With all of the damage to the bathroom of our unit and trouble re-renting it we had to let it go to foreclosure and it just sold this month at auction. Now we've received a letter from Subrogation service that the insurance company of the condo owner below is investigating this $15K claim and wants us to give them our insurance company info, we did not have insurance, because their insurance company has the right to make a claim against the parties responsible. My question is who is responsible? The tenant who admitted negligence or us? How ofter do they pursue these matters? We do not have the money to pay this. Any advice on how to respond to this letter from National Subrogation Services, LLC would be appreciated.
The subroagation service is looking for who has money to go after. Get them your tenants name, address etc. and let them go after the tenant and hope he had insurance. They may well try to sue you for the damage. If you did not have insurance and have no other assets they MAY leave you alone. the tenant who caused the damage is liable.
If the tenant was not notified of the water shutoff, I doubt they're going to find him 100% responsible, if at all. Normally all tenants are notified perhaps by 2 or 3 days prior to a shut off like this unless there was an emergency. I'm not sure you can even call the tenant "negligent"; this is what the word "accident" was invented to define and the reason people should always have proper insurance coverage.
As the owner you did not have liability insurance required by most property management companies? Did you have a management company? I am very sorry for your troubles.
Responsibility may ultimately be determined in Court...
City-Data is not a venue for legal advice so the opinions provided are only that.
My experience it is standard practice to attempt recovery from as many parties as possible.
Not having insurance puts you in the hot-seat because you will most likely need a lawyer to present a proper answer if this is what you are counseled to do.
Look at it this way... the money you saved on insurance premiums will buy the legal advice you now need.
I'm not sure you can even call the tenant "negligent"; this is what the word "accident" was invented to define and the reason people should always have proper insurance coverage.
Came here to say this. Accidents happen. Negligence requires proving that an average person would have avoided the situation, but this doesn't sound that far out to me.
I'm curious to hear what in-writing proof you have that you told the tenant ahead of time what would be happening and what he/she was and was not to do during the process.
this is tenet stupidity if you turn on the water and get none the the water is off. go after the fool. but you canot fix stupid
I agree but unfortunately the tenant may now be nearly impossible to find since he/she is moving out. Perhaps if the OP has liability Insurance, which all landlords should have, or Homeowners Insurance that can pay for the damages. Even if the tenant wasn't told the water was shut off the idiot still should have used common sense. I don't know the law but I would think the Insurance of the owners below can hold you the owners of the rented condo responsible since you are the landlord. But I would imagine that would only be because they can't get the rest of the money from the tenant who willingly admitted to the negligence. They are probably going after you because they can't locate the tenant responsible. Yeah go after this idiot and make them responsible give the tenants name, address and anything else they want on this person.
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