Plumbers damaged my possesions. Next step?

[ddduke]

Walked into my basement this morning and the entire thing is flooded. Walk up to the drain in the floor (not sure what it's called) and about 8ft around it there's peices of poo, toilet paper and the entire basement is flooded with piss/water.

I live in a duplex where all the piping is connected from side to side and 2 days ago my neighbour had clogged pipes so they pumped his lines out.

I called 2 separate plumbers to come in today to see wtf happened. They both had told me that the plumbers that came should have known what they were doing and came to my house (I was home) and plugged my drain before unplugging the neighbours.

I started going through my belongings and everything is soaked and has absorbed a few inches of fluid. Some of the belongings include:
2 dianese motorbike coats
2 motorbike helmets
motorcycle boots
3 pairs of bike gloves
half dozen or so new visors
Hockey equipment
furniture
printer
personal belongings like photo albums
etc.

Neighbour's not home to tell me which company did the work so I haven't contacted them or my insurance company yet. But now I'm wondering if I should claim this as it's in no way my fault (as far as I know and from what I've been told). Should I try to get the plumbing company to cover this? At the very least I want them to come out and clean/bleach the entire basement.

Thoughts?

[dj_rice]

Compile price list of everything that got damaged. Get quotes from a couple companies about how much it is to repair all the damage.

Contact the at fault plumbing company and present your info and if they reject and won't compensate, then talk to your insurance and claim.

[revelations]

Hope you have tenants insurance, otherwise youre likely SOL.

The plumbing companies will deny all claims since it happend well after they were on site.... even though they should have known better.

Of course, you could take them to small claims court and present your case, but thats a few years away.

[sillysod]

Just call your insurance.

They can go after the plumbing comany. You pay them every month to do that so why would you want to take it on?

[ddduke]

talked to the plumbing company, they said they're sending someone this week from their insurance to check it out. They told me any mess/damage is covered but if I want my personal belongings replaced then I have to claim through my insurance, sounds very fishy to me.

I'm going to call my insurance tomorrow.

[Stealth22]

Save yourself the trouble, OP. Go through insurance.