The Lemon Fool

First post from a former TMF member. If I've chosen the wrong board please feel free to correct me.

I am the landlord of a ground floor BTL flat. There is a water leak from the flat above, apparently caused by a plumber, which has caused my tenants to give notice and send me a solicitor's letter demanding compensation. The owner of the flat will not return phone calls, his tenants will not talk, and the block management company maintain that it is none of their business - all they will do is turn off the water for 24 hours at a time, which is fine if the time was used to fix the leak. It is not.

Can anyone advice me as to what I can do? I''d be willing to offer to pay for the repair if I knew who to ask to do it.

H

I seem to remember that you have to contact the council.

But you need to be clear where the leak is coming from - it can turn out that pipes in your roof are your pipes.

Can anyone advice me as to what I can do?

Pass it all over to your insurer.
Their legals should push to get the leakage settled and recover damages from the owner of the flat above.
Let them sort out the problem, but it looks like gross negligence if a leak is deliberately being allowed to continue.

I'd be willing to offer to pay for the repair if I knew who to ask to do it.

Could invalidate your insurer's position so not the road to go down.

You will be able add you own losses of damage and rental income to the insurance claim via your own insurers.

stockton wrote:I seem to remember that you have to contact the council.

Only if the council is the leaseholder, as with former council flats that have been sold, I would have thought.

Only if the council is the leaseholder, as with former council flats that have been sold, I would have thought.

The council because they have the power to enter properties which are causing a hazard.

stockton wrote:

Only if the council is the leaseholder, as with former council flats that have been sold, I would have thought.

The council because they have the power to enter properties which are causing a hazard.

The water authority has similar powers regarding leakage.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1991/56/section/75
Power to prevent damage and to take steps to prevent contamination, waste etc.
(1)Without prejudice to any power conferred on water undertakers by regulations under section 74 above, where a water undertaker which provides a supply of water to any premises has reason for believing—
(a)that damage to persons or property is being or is likely to be caused by any damage to, or defect in, any water fitting used in connection with the supply of water to those premises which is not a service pipe belonging to the undertaker;

Your insurer will only be interested in repairing the damage after the leak is fixed. If you have legal cover they may help.

Best answer is local authority environmental health.

Although building owner should if they have sense have a interest in what is going on.