grannybunz

Hi everyone.

Hope a good festive season was had/is being had by all.

We have had torrential rain for severaldays before Christmas and a firece Mistral on Boxing Day.

Our front garden is a walled courtyard with one wall being part of our neighbour's house and the opposite one being a joint garden wall with daughter's house next door.

When the first rain hit we could hear very watery noises falling on our second-floor balcony (the house is 3 storeys high). When it was light we realised that neighbours gutters have sprung an enormous leak and water was cascading down her wall.

She is not a permanent resident and is currently in Thailand.The water had penetrated her wall and come through the glass tiling that is on part of the balcony and, in doing so has damaged our veranda/sun-room. The rendering on her wall has also fallen off - onto the balcony.

We e-mailed the neighbour but all she said was "Get "O" (her handyman) to do something. O too is away until the beginning of Jan. Our builder said he would come - at the beginning of January.

Does anyone know who should be doing the fixing and who should pay for it?
She says it is a joint wall - but the gutter is clearly hers. Appart from call our insurance - which we have done what would be your advice/suggestions?

Sorry for the long winded question and thanks for any advice you may have.

EuroTrash

It sounds like fairly serious damage so surely it is a matter for your and her insurers to sort out between them. I would hand it over to them as soon as possible, making sure any bills you incur for emergency repair work have been approved. Assessing damage and repairing property and deciding liability is their job and the less personal involvement the two of you have - such as arguing the toss about whose wall it is and whose gutter it is - the less danger there is of you falling out. It's nobody's fault, but when neighbours get stressed and emotional about these things it can lead to bad feeling. So if it were me I would put it in the insurers' hands right from the start.

grannybunz

Hi Eurotrash
We have already informed our insurer but she has not informed hers. She doesn't speak good French (she is American) and is clearly having such a good time she will take ages to get round to it. We communicate only by e-mail and that is the only address we have for her. Hopefully the weather is set fair for the next few days so our builder will get here before there is another downpour.

Last summer her rooftop swimming pool emptied itself on the other side of her house and the resulting deluge flooded the bedroom of the family next door. It took her weeks to make the insurance claim and it was weeks after that the the "specialist arrived to assess the damage and it wasn't until just before Christmas that the work was approved and completed.

I'm afraid she is completely irresponsible over property ownership and consideration of anyone but herself. She flits about from country to country but won't spend a centime on maintaining her property.

InVinoVeritas

It sounds to me like you should be getting your Assistance Juridique involved (assuming you have this extension to your insurance cover).
Good luck!

dmu

Sorry to hear this.
You're the one claiming damage, not your American neighbour. Can't you ask the neighbours whose bedroom was flooded, who her Insurers are? Your Insurance Agent could contact them as, indeed, it's all sorted out between the Insurance companies.
You could warn her that, if her Insurance company hasn't got her e-mail address, you will give it to yours. It's not your problem what contact they have with their roving client but as she seems so irresponsible, it might shake her up a bit.
But you must get your Agent to come and assess the damage to your house ASAP and they'll take over and approve who'll do the repairs.
Good luck!

grannybunz

Thanks for your thoughts folks.

We have given our assurers her e-mail address but they say that both companies need a postal address. As for an assessor our agent says it can take up to 6 weeks to get someone out and we know this is true after our last claim 3 years ago. Our other neighbour was contacted by phone following his claim and told that his own insurance had agreed to deal with it.

Domino

may I say that with such a flighty (in more than one sense) neighbour you are lucky she has insurance.
although it is no fun sitting there looking at the desolation caused to your property whilst you tick off another week/month on the calendar.

grannybunz

We have just received a very helpful message from our notaire who has looked at the cadastre and the details of our purchase - he did the paperwork.

He informs us that the wall and the guttering is entirely her responsibility and should we feel the need to have emergency repairs done (he added if we can find someone to do it!!)then he is prepared to confirm that we did so on his advice.

Still no reponse from madam - she is probably still on some sort of high from New Year.

Domino

I'll send her home from my New Year's Party at the end of this week

grannybunz

No thanks, you can keep her!!

Domino

thats good - sense of humour showing just a teensy bit

hope you can get this sorted and finished soon