What to do if you flood your neighbors below

Sequencing

If a water leak is detected, the following actions should be taken immediately:

It is necessary to minimize the damage to neighbors by promptly identifying the source of the leak (isolating the source of the leak), turning off the water and taking appropriate measures. Eliminate the resulting consequences.
Clarification of the circumstances of the incident, identification of the culprit. If you are the culprit, you will have to compensate for the damage from your own pocket.
If the incident is not your fault, you need to consider the cause of the leak in more detail. In the event of a break in the riser, it is required to be replaced by the housing department (or another management company) and the victims to file a class action lawsuit against the culprit who did not carry out timely repairs.
Obtain a flood report from the fire service or maintenance service, reflecting the circumstances of the incident. Carefully follow the drafting of the act. It must be drawn up objectively and with the involvement of all necessary specialists (plumbing service worker, housing office, witnesses, etc.). Pay attention to the date, signatures, and numbers indicated.

Possible causes of flooding

After the incident, when emotions have more or less subsided and you, like your neighbors, are ready to further resolve the issue, it is necessary to jointly establish the cause of the accident and determine the person at fault. The owner of the apartment above is not always the culprit of the leak, so you should not take responsibility for other people’s shortcomings and pay for the losses from your own pocket.

As practice shows, the causes of flooding are the following circumstances:

Inattention, negligence and forgetfulness of the apartment owner from above. This applies to cases where the accident occurred as a result of a breakdown of household appliances, say a washing machine, or when the tenant simply forgot to turn off the water and went to bed or went to work;
Breakdown of the water supply system. Please note that in this case there is no fault of the tenant from above, therefore the fact of the defect that led to the creation of an emergency situation must be documented. The best option would be to draw up a report and contact independent experts. The conclusion obtained from an expert company can be used in court, both to prove one’s innocence and to claim damages from the service serving the house in which the accident occurred. As a rule, such a service is the housing office. After all, the responsibility for maintaining the house, in particular the water supply system, lies with this office, therefore it should be the defendant;
Worn-out pipes, a pipeline whose service life has long expired. Replacing pipes is not your responsibility, but the housing office’s, so in this case all questions should be directed to this organization.

Damage compensation procedure

It should be remembered that the culprit in this situation may be not only you personally, but also the service organization or the owner of the living space.

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Let's look at each case in more detail:

The culprit is you. The conflict should be resolved peacefully by agreeing with the affected neighbors on payment of damages (the amount of compensation is determined by mutual agreement). If you and your neighbors have not come to a mutual agreement, you must seek the help of an independent expert who can objectively assess the costs incurred by your neighbors.
The culprit is the organization servicing the property. It is necessary to file a class action lawsuit in the name of the management company, since you are also a victim.
The culprit is the owner of the living space. In this case, compensation for damage should be demanded from him. If your property was damaged during the flood, you also have the right to compensation.

What to do if your neighbors below are flooded?

In Art.
210 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation states that the owner must monitor the maintenance of property in proper condition. Accordingly, it is he who must communicate with his flooded neighbors. Reference! In some cases, the residents of the house decide to resolve the conflict on the spot by paying in whole or in part for the damage. Lawyers recommend issuing a written receipt of acceptance of the money, otherwise it will subsequently be difficult to prove the transfer of compensation. If the tenants or the owner flooded the neighbors below, we will consider what to do below:

First of all, try to stop the flood. To do this, you need to find the cause of the leak and turn off the tap.
Disconnect the apartment from electricity.
Notify neighbors about the incident if they are outside the house.
Call a plumber.
Call the Management Company.
Record damage to neighbors in the presence of a CC officer.
Solve the problem with the residents of the flooded apartment peacefully.

If the neighbors do not want to come to an agreement or have asked for too much money for damage, then it is recommended to conduct an independent examination and resolve the problem through the court.

in his apartment

The owner is responsible for maintaining the housing in proper condition (Article 30 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation). The owner is obliged to respect the rights and legitimate interests of neighbors. Therefore, if another apartment is flooded, responsibility falls on the owner.

He must be present when inspecting the consequences of flooding and drawing up a report by the relevant organizations.

in a rented apartment

If an emergency occurs in a rented apartment , then responsibility and, accordingly, compensation for damage also lies with the owner of the apartment. In accordance with Art. 30 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the owner is obliged to maintain a residential apartment.

Consequently, the owner must pay for the damage to the neighbors. This is also stated in Art. 1064 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The law states that damage can be compensated by a person who did not cause it. This includes the payment of compensation to the victim.

In accordance with Art. 676 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the landlord is obliged to provide tenants with housing in a condition that is suitable for living. He must ensure that communications in the apartment are in proper form. Therefore, if a leak occurs due to wear and tear of pipes or plumbing, then the fault lies with the owner of the premises.

But this does not mean that the amount of damage cannot be recovered from the tenants. Damage caused by careless actions is paid by tenants if this is stipulated in the agreement concluded when renting an apartment. The owner of the home has the right to demand compensation for damage caused on the basis of Art. 1081 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Independent damage assessment

If you were unable to reach a mutual agreement with your neighbors, you must seek the help of an independent expert who can objectively assess the costs incurred by your neighbors. The procedure for calling an examination is as follows:

You should choose a company that conducts the appropriate examination and pay for its services (either on your own or using the funds of the victims - you should decide in a timely manner).
Providing experts with a passport, an act confirming the bay and documents for the apartment.
Inspection of the apartment by an appraiser for damage.
Drawing up an apartment assessment report within a period of 3 to 10 days. When compiling the report, the average market cost of building materials and repair services and the degree of deterioration of the damaged property are taken into account.

Terms of compensation

The timing of compensation depends on the situation.
If the neighbors have come to a peaceful agreement, then they can enter into an agreement that states by what time compensation should be paid. The contract must indicate (Article 421 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation):

size of the amount;
payment procedure;
deadlines for providing compensation or eliminating damage;
responsibility of the parties.

If the Criminal Code is found to be at fault, then a written notice must be sent demanding compensation for the damage. Company employees are required to respond to the complaint within 30 days. In cases where the Criminal Code has ignored the complaint, victims can go to court.

Average cost of compensation for flooding of neighbors

Up to 5000 rubles	Up to 6000 rubles	Up to 7500 rubles	Up to 9000 rubles
One room	+	–	–	–
Two rooms	–	+	–	–
Three rooms	–	–	+	–
Four rooms	–	–	–	+

How not to pay?

How not to pay the amount of damage depends on the circumstances of the flood.
If it is proven that the Management Company is to blame for the incident, then it is obliged to pay for the damage. Compensation may also be recovered from utility services. Attention! The culprit of the incident may agree with the neighbors not to pay compensation, but to make repairs to them at his own expense in order to eliminate the damage.

If the guilty party does not agree with the amount of damage that the neighbors named, you can go to court. The claim must be accompanied by evidence that the damage caused is much less than what was indicated by the victims.

The court takes into account not only the cost of damaged items, but also the degree of wear and tear when assessing damage. Therefore, the amount of damage incurred may be much less than what the injured party requires. In this case, the defendant, if proven guilty, will have to pay the costs of the examination and court costs.

Next steps

If utility workers have not yet managed to shut off the riser, and “stormy streams of water are rushing towards” the neighbor’s apartment, it is necessary to act. Follows step by step:

Stop the water at the leakage point yourself, or at least reduce the flow;
De-energize the apartment by turning off the voltage supply at the panel;
Turn off household appliances from the network;
Call a plumber;
Call your neighbors if they have not yet come to you “with warm greetings”;
If there is no communication with your neighbors, call the management company and have its employee shut off the water supply in the common riser;
Take photographs of the consequences of a “disaster” in a neighbor’s apartment;
Call an employee of the management company in order to draw up an appropriate act, as well as assess the damage caused;
Make an attempt to resolve the situation through peaceful negotiations with people living on the floor below;
If your neighbors’ requests for damages seem too high, and they simply don’t want to talk, give preference to solving the problem through the courts.

As for calling a plumber, upon arrival he will be able to accurately determine whether the owner of the apartment flooded the neighbors below through his own fault or whether the responsibility lies with the management company. In this regard, the rule applies: if the location of the leak is located before the shut-off valves of the residential area, the service company is to blame; if the defect is behind the tap that limits the supply to the apartment, the responsibility falls on the owner of the residential property. And it doesn’t matter whether the dishwasher or washing machine leaked, the faucet “flew” or the pipe burst.

What will photographing the consequences of flooding in a neighbor's apartment give? In the future, this will help to determine as accurately as possible the amount of damage caused.

Regarding negotiations with the injured party. If relations with neighbors are good, the chances of a peaceful resolution of the issue increase significantly. In this case, you can agree on the amount of damages that will be “heart to heart” for both parties. If the claims are unfounded, an independent expert should be invited to determine the amount of damage.

Assessment and compensation of damage

In order to assess the damage caused to neighbors, you can contact the management company with a request to send a special commission. In this case, experts will record the damage and determine who is responsible for the incident. The second option is to contact an independent appraiser who has a license to perform appraisal examinations.

Important! If the neighbors below called an appraiser on their own, who documented the damage, but did not invite the other party, the act need not be signed. An alternative is to draw up a statement of disagreement and then submit an appeal to the management company.