What to do if the neighbors from above constantly flood

Wars of neighbors due to floods appeared when mankind came up with multi-storey buildings. Someone didn’t turn off the water, someone’s sewer pipes flowed, a tap was torn off in someone’s apartment ....

From such troubles no one can be insured. But any normal person, even the most calm and balanced, will lose control of their emotions when they see the scale of the catastrophes caused by the flood. It becomes especially insulting if the apartment has recently been renovated.

What to do if your apartment suffers from the fact that it is constantly heated by neighbors living upstairs? Where to apply and what acts need to be drawn up?

If you are still unlucky, and you have become the “lucky one” who was flooded, you need to make informed decisions and act only within the legal framework.

It is worth dealing with the flood gradually, observing the following stages.

1. If you see that your apartment has become the epicenter of a flood created by the fault of a neighbor living upstairs, then the first thing you need to do is secure your home. To do this, you need to turn off the electricity, since its interaction with water can be harmful to health and even life.
2. Next, you need to notify the living people from above that they are drowning you. If in an apartment located on the top floor, no one opens the door, it should not be broken out, since this is illegal. Try to shut off the water supply to the apartment, and if necessary, to the whole entrance.
3. Despite the desire to immediately remove everything, dry it, and sometimes even wash it, the next step should be a photo or video recording of the consequences of what happened. In the event that the neighbor does not agree to compensate for the damage voluntarily, evidence of material losses will be useful in further struggle.
4. The most important evidence in the fight for damages will be an act that you need to be able to draw up correctly.
5. If in your house the tenants know each other not only by sight, but also by name and surname, then there is the possibility of an amicable solution to the issue. If you do not know your neighbors, then your next step should be to find out the identity of the neighbors who are drowning you.
6. Be sure to figure out whose fault the flood happened. Not always the neighbor is to blame for what happened. We need to figure out what exactly happened: a breakthrough or inattention of the residents of the upper apartment. If the leak happened on the water supply line, then the local housing department (household company) will be the culprit. It is they who bear full responsibility for the accidents that occurred in the sections of risers and pipelines, since they collect money from residents for their maintenance.
7. If, nevertheless, the neighbor is to blame for what happened, then you can try to agree on compensation for material losses without the intervention of a third party. To do this, you need to invite him to your apartment in order to demonstrate to him the scale of the trouble received through his fault.

It often happens that people are ready to decide everything voluntarily, without bringing the case of the flood to court. In the event of a complete refusal to admit your guilt and compensate for the losses, you will have to seek help from the court.

In any case, you need to notify the management company about the incident of emergency and invite specialists to record what happened by drawing up a written act.

When notifying representatives of the housing department or the management company about the incident, you should definitely ask the name of the employee who receives your appeal. It is also worth asking what number it was recorded under (a note about it must be entered in the registration journal with the obligatory assignment of a serial number and an indication of the time and date).

If by phone you were refused to provide a specialist with a visit to the scene, then you have the right to clarify the reason for this.

All these formalities will be useful in further litigation. Especially in the event that the housing department itself or the company managing the house turns out to be the guilty party.

How to write a flood report

One of the main evidence of flooding and the extent of the damages received is an act - a written document that records the time of the incident, the date and gives a detailed listing of all the consequences.

Such an act must be drawn up in two copies, one of which (original) must be kept. A document is drawn up in the presence of several eyewitness neighbors and representatives of the service company.

If the latter did not appear for some reason, this fact must be indicated in the act, which must be drawn up on the day of the emergency or, in extreme cases, the next day.

When drawing up an act stating that the residents living above flood you, you also need to indicate the exact reason why the flood occurred. To do this, it is better to involve independent experts who know how to do their job efficiently.

They will professionally document the true causes of the disaster. The expert opinion will have to be paid by the interested party with further compensation for the cost by the culprit of what is happening.

In the act, you must accurately indicate all the items that were damaged due to the fault of the neighbors from above (their name, quantity, scale of damage). Inspection of things should be done carefully, not missing any clothes, equipment, or other items.

If there is such an opportunity, then the neighbors who drown you from above should be invited to jointly draw up an act so that they can personally verify and fix the amount of harm done.

Make sure that all witnesses and representatives of the management company have certified the act with their signatures. In the absence of at least one of them, the act may be considered invalid.

If the total cost of repairs needed for an apartment after a flood is high, then independent appraisers can be hired who can expertly determine all the necessary financial injections and draw up an estimate to support all this.

What to do if the neighbors who heat you rent an apartment

If in the course of the proceedings it turns out that the neighbors living above are guilty of the flood, and they do not live in their apartment, then the tenants will have to compensate for the material and moral damage received. Water not turned off in time, a broken faucet, a broken washing machine - all this is not the fault of the owners of the apartment, but of their residents.

Although, there are cases when the owner of the living space will be guilty of what happened. If a pipe breaks in the apartment, then all responsibility rests with him, since it is the landlord who must monitor the health of the pipeline located in his apartment.

If there is a dispute about who is to blame for drowning you, then you need to demand compensation from the owner of the apartment. And only after the court decision is made, the owner can start another process in which he will prove that the tenants are to blame. Only after that the owner of the apartment will be able to demand reimbursement of costs from his guests.

What to do if you can not resolve the issue of flooding amicably

If attempts at a peaceful resolution of the issue are unsuccessful, then the injured party needs to go to court.

To do this, you will have to do the following:

• collect a package of necessary documents (a copy of the completed act of flooding; the full cost of things damaged by the flood and the cost of the necessary repairs, calculated in the defective act; estimate documentation for the repairs carried out and documents with which you can confirm your ownership of housing);
• write an application to the court for the recovery of material and moral costs from the culprit (in this case, you must clearly indicate the defendant in your case).

You can go to court on your own, but with the help of a lawyer, you will be able to legally competently draw up an application, accurately collect the entire package of documents necessary to start the trial and effectively defend your rights in the courtroom.

It should be understood that even with a court decision in your favor, the perpetrators who flood you cannot always immediately and in full compensate all costs. Sometimes this process can take a long time. You can protect yourself from such problems with home insurance against accidents.

What to do if the neighbors living upstairs heat constantly

Sometimes it happens that the neighbors flood the apartment. This can happen to anyone who lives in a high-rise building that is not on the top floor.

But what if this happens not once, but constantly? To combat the fact that your neighbors systematically drown you, you must definitely use legal methods. In such cases, you need to go to court.

Today it is possible to evict in court tenants who constantly violate the rights of people living in the neighborhood. Systematic floods are on the list of violations of the rights of residents.

To do this, you need to do the following: you need to provide evidence to the court that you are flooded repeatedly. At the same time, you need to prove the fact that the neighbors were notified about this, that you demanded compensation from them and asked them to fix the problem, which leads to the fact that you are constantly drowning.

It will also be necessary to prove the fact that the perpetrators did not take any measures to eliminate the causes of systematic floods.