Cleaner flooded my rented flat. Who's liable?
So we have a cleaner arranged via an agency. Today was this particular cleaner's first day cleaning our flat, we had used a different cleaner through the same agency until recently. Both myself and my wife were at work but the agency have a key so she let herself in.
While she was cleaning the sink she knocked the kitchen tap out causing water to pour out of the pipe into the kitchen. I had noticed previously that the tap was slightly loose but it had never come off before. Evidently she was unable to turn the water off. My wife got a phone call from the agency saying that the cleaner was unable to turn the tap off, my wife explained that it was straightforward and that if they were still unable to call her back. She got no further phone calls from the agency.
When she got back from work about 6 hours later water was still pouring from the sink into the kitchen which was flooded. The cleaner had left after moving the rug and some other items off the floor onto a sofa. There was damage to the wooden floors and to the oven which keeps shorting. We currently have no water until an emergency plumber can come to fix the tap.
My question is does the landlord pay for damages and ask for compensation from the cleaning agency or are they entitled to ask us to pay and we recoup that from the agency given that we hired the cleaners?
Many thanks for any help.
Posted Mar 30, 2017, 10:32 AM UTC
Any decent cleaning agency has insurance for this type of thing. You need to get their details.