Water leak coming into flat

[mrpenguin]

Hi, some much needed advice please on this situation one of my friends has found herself in:

 

The short version - She is the middle floor in a 3 story block of flats which is a shared ownership property. Water has been found to be entering her flat via the kitchen ceiling but since having people in to assess the issue, they have advised that the source of the leakage is not form within her property but they cannot identify it origin without going in via the flat of the person above her. The people who have made this statement work working for the buildings insurance company who were called out to repair the damage caused by the water.

 

The issue is the whole situation is not being co-ordinated by anyone and it seems no one is interested is resolving the matter – the workmen cannot continue without the leak being located and stopped while there will be cost & inconvenience involved in getting the person in the flat above to accept any potential responsibility for the leak. In fact the person above is not having any of the symptoms of the leak. What we need to know is who technically responsible for resolving this issue, what steps need to be taken to find out who this is and what can be done to ensure who ever is responsible to resolve this matter, does so in a timely/urgent manner?

 

All comments and suggestions welcome, please shout if you required additional info.

 

Thanks

 

Mr Penguin

Edited July 28, 2010 by mrpenguin
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[mrpenguin]

Can anyone help?

[mrpenguin]

anyone?

[Aviva]

You say she is in a shared ownership property. Do you mean that she has a part buy part rent flat from a Housing Association? If so then she should contact them to see if they can help.

 

If she is a leaseholder (most owners of flats are) then who is the freeholder? Does she pay ground rent or service charges to anyone?

 

Not sure what a freeholder/managing company/housing association would legally have to do but any decent ones would not want a unrepaired leak in their building.

 

Is the person above not at least willing for a repairman to go in to see if they can find where the leak is coming from?

[mrpenguin]

You say she is in a shared ownership property. Do you mean that she has a part buy part rent flat from a Housing Association? If so then she should contact them to see if they can help.

 

If she is a leaseholder (most owners of flats are) then who is the freeholder? Does she pay ground rent or service charges to anyone?

 

Not sure what a freeholder/managing company/housing association would legally have to do but any decent ones would not want a unrepaired leak in their building.

 

Is the person above not at least willing for a repairman to go in to see if they can find where the leak is coming from?

 

Thanks for your reply:

 

Yes the property is part rent part buy from a housing association. They housing association have been very unhelpful to say the least. A service charge is included in the monthly rent paid to the housing association.

 

After much pestering and complaining to the housing association they sent in their own surveyor who did get access to the flat above. The leak has been identified in his property. As the leak is now classed as internal to his flat, it is not covered on the buildings insurance and will need to be paid for out of his pocket. The surveyor advised it is only a 10 minute job and was the fault of the people who originally installed the pipes (new build less than 2 years old).

 

So the situation now is that the person from the flat above will need to organise their own plumber but has claimed he has 'no money' and so it seems that he may not end up getting it fixed any time soon. Is there anything or any body/organisation we can look to in order to force him to get the repairs done immediately?

[Webranger]

It is definitely the HA's responsibility to get this fixed and fast. As the fault has been identified as one of the original work they cannot even claim repayment from the top floor occupant.

 

Write to the HA saying you will take court action if they don't fix it immediately. Get your local paper to run a story on irresponsible HA. In the meantime you could do the obvious and arrange with him upstairs to pay for the work yourself and get cost back via the court.

[mrpenguin]

Many thanks webranger