atleast one of the flats above mine is leaking!

JayyCee

JayyCee

JayyCee

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Aberdeen
Yesterday I noticed a watermark in the corner of my bathroom roof/wall and on inspection some water damage/mould on my newly skimmed and painted bedroom :mad: (both the same wall)

Ive popped my head through the access hatch in my bathroom and the joists are soaking :(. The flat above is empty so I contacted the solicitors renting it out and they got the emergency plumber round. He has turned off the water and drained the system. He says there is water damage to their roof too so the finger has been pointed to the flat above but it was also noted he couldn't even remove the inspection panel on the bath to have a look:confused:. The bath and cupboard with the water tank sit directly above where the damage is so I don't think it rules them out yet.

Im going to try and contact the neighbour above tonight.


Im new to home ownership and I was wondering if anyone could give any advice on how to handle this? Who is responsible for paying to gain access to the piping that could be causing it :S?. I presume there was a reason the plumber couldn't even remove the inspection panel of the bath. I presume we need to locate the flat responsible before insurance can get involved?
 
Get a copy of your lease and see what obligations are for anything shared/outside your walls/in the roof etc etc. Chances are the flat above will be under the same terms so if it's anything in roof spaces between flats or within walls it could be head landlord's (i.e owner of the whole building) responsibility.

If it's the bath or tank etc in the flat above it will probably be the owner of that flat.
 
hopefully plumber took pictures to provide to yourself/solicitors as evidence of whether water was from neighbour or potentially communal(?) water tank above.
maybe surprising if plumber drained system when he thought water was from above (ok maybe he was being very precautionary, anticipating subsequent work above)
 
Skillmister said:
Get a copy of your lease and see what obligations are for anything shared/outside your walls/in the roof etc etc. Chances are the flat above will be under the same terms so if it's anything in roof spaces between flats or within walls it could be head landlord's (i.e owner of the whole building) responsibility.

If it's the bath or tank etc in the flat above it will probably be the owner of that flat.
Click to expand...

I will dig out the Deeds tonight and check, thanks.


jpaul said:
hopefully plumber took pictures to provide to yourself/solicitors as evidence of whether water was from neighbour or potentially communal(?) water tank above.
maybe surprising if plumber drained system when he thought water was from above (ok maybe he was being very precautionary, anticipating subsequent work above)
Click to expand...

Nope I asked the Solicitor if the plumber had provided evidence and he had not. Solicitor also says their property manager is on holiday till Wednesday so they cant even access it to provide me with proof. Till then best they can do is send a letter to the flat above informing them of the leak :confused::mad:. It means I now need to approach the flat above myself with no evidence the leak is caused by them.


I guess because the flat is currently vacant draining it would be the safest option in the mean time?
 
Update on this:

Plumbers have been in and stated they fixed the issue and turned the water back on two weeks ago. The timber in my roof is still damp and I swear it is slowly getting worse. However the plumbers say it will just the last of the water and its just drying out. Problem is I donno how long the water was leaking before it got to the point it became an issue in the first instance so this is a bit of a waiting game im not happy to play.

If the water was turned off on the 20th of May and the difference was quite noticeable within the first week im presuming the timber would be pretty dry by now and not damp to touch?

TLDR: Don't think the plumbers fixed the leak, Anyone got a rough idea how long timber takes to dry...?
 
Yeah I have one of those up there at the moment. Only a little one with a dissolving tablet thing though as there's no sockets or windows nearby.
 
hmm that might be an issue. I closed the access hatch to the effected area as its in a windowless bathroom and all the steam was just going up to where it was damp. So here really nowhere to put an electric one :(

Edit: How about silica Gel packs?
 
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