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California Civil Code 1950: Who covers Tenant property damage if my neighbor's water heater explodes?
Anonymous4 views1 answers
My upstairs neighbor's water heater broke, pouring water into my kitchen and living room below. The landlord is obviously replacing the ceiling and the carpet in my apt, as well as replacing the carpet in the apt upstairs.
My couch was damaged, with water pouring down in it all day and into the night until the water leaks stopped. Is it my responsibility to replace the couch on my renter's insurance or should the landlord replace it? I would want to be reimbursed for my deductible, since this is quite an inconvenience for me.
The answer to this question depends on several things. Presumably the water heater in your neighbor's unit was owned by your landlord. In most cases when a water heater breaks, it is the responsibility of the owner of the water heater to pay for the resulting damages, so they would be the responsibility of the landlord and usually would be covered by the landlord's property owners insurance.
However, if the water heater broke as a result of negligent conduct by your neighbor, the neighbor would be liable to you as well as to the landlord for the damages that resulted from that negligent conduct and he or his insurer would be the proper parties with which to deal .
Also, in some situations, but not usually in residential rentals, tenants have leases that make the tenants responsible for repairs and for insuring against losses. If there is a lease provision that determines responsibility, that usually would control, but liability under the lease might be subject to some defenses that are beyond the scope of your question and which are not likely to come up in your matter.
Assuming that there are no lease provisions shifting responsibility, the best course to take would be to tell your landlord that you want to submit a claim to your landlord's insurance company.
If there are problems with that or if the landlord is not insured for this sort of liability, you can can file a claim with your own insurance carrier. In that situation, you would be responsible for your deductible, but in most cases, your insurance carrier would try to obtain reimbursement from the responsible party or parties in a subrogation action and in such an action, it can obtain the amount of your deductible from the responsible party and reimburse you for your deductible when it prevails.
