HELP! Upstairs neighbour - water leaking into flat - won't answer door or notes HELP!

1984ReturnsForReal_2

I would call the police & tell them you are worried about her health..

phill99

Call the police. They WILL act on this. We have a lot of small blocks of flats round here and they will attend and if need be knock her door down to gain access to the flat.

Owain_Moneysaver

Contact Environmental Health and Building Control at the local council. They can enforce action including entering the property to carry out necessary repair and charging the upstairs owner.

lee5768

andy111 wrote: »

Assuming the water companies in Scotland act similarly to those in England this is what will happen if the OP ever gets around to ringing them;

Under the water wastage industry act 1999 all water companies have a responsibility to prevent wastage, and as stated in my earlier post they have to take it seriously.
An employee will come to the address, he will issue a notice to repair to the above flat and depending on the co-operation or otherwise things will develop from there.

To lee5768;

I find it impossible to believe that anyone could think that an overflow could be left to damage other properties and no one have any control over that supply; common sense alone would dictate that the company have ultimate control of their own product.

As earlier stated this happened to me last year and I finally showed the employee where to externally turn off the supply after a couple of days.

If you do not believe my posts and need to confirm just phone your own water company now and state the above scenario is happening to a friend and what is the procedure and likely outcome; I'm sure they will explain the procedure.




Everything I have posted
is as laid out on the waterboard united utilities website

quotes I have posted are from that the same and the clearly say the same.

the responsibility of this problem lands on the owner of the flat with the damaged ball value that's causing the overflow to leak

go look at the websites for yourself I have just randomly picked 3 suppliers all say the same

then I went to wateruk websites legal section they say the same so then I went to
ofwat and not surprisingly (to me) they say the same so after all these websites and
this included OFWAT not a single one backs your story up( not one) they all say the same


quote from ofwat site the regulator
What the water companies are responsible for

Water companies are responsible for the water mains in the ground. Normally they are also responsible for that part of the service pipe lying between the main and the company's stop tap which represents the limit of their public network (usually at the boundary of the highway). This is known as the communication pipe. Most properties have an underground stop tap at the boundary where the communication pipe ends. The water company is responsible for the repair and maintenance of this stop tap.
What you are responsible for

In most cases, the part of the service pipe taking water from the company's stop tap into the house belongs to the householder or property owner. This is known as the supply pipe. It is the householder's responsibility to keep the supply pipe in good order, in the same way as they are responsible for the plumbing. It is the landlord's responsibility in rented properties (unless the rental agreement states differently).



Re your comments about cutting the water off

1 they can't gain access anyway the OP has been trying for days
2 cutting the water off from the main in the street would cut the supply off to the whole building not just one flat
3 no water company can cut off supplies to people's homes on public health grounds not even of they don't pay the bill (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8115887.stm

andy111

To the OP;

Please post in detail on here the series of events after you have contacted the water company.

view

Ok. the leak seems to be just a drip now and again... so she has done something to cease the flow. Will still contact water company but am out of the office until Friday so won't have a response until then - thanks for all your advice and answers.

slbhill

phill99 wrote: »

Call the police. They WILL act on this. We have a lot of small blocks of flats round here and they will attend and if need be knock her door down to gain access to the flat.

We live in Scotland and have had this happen because of a plumbing problem.

The water to the block was off temporarily & we somehow managed to leave a tap on. The water came back on many hours before we came back & started flooding the flat downstairs. The police smashed our door down and turned off the tap, we got home to a boarded up door!

Yours may not be so easy - at least in our case it was just a tap. But if things are getting that desperate then the police may well help.

You say she is the landlord - do you think she wants you to move out for some reason?? There must be something going on for her to not even acknowledge the problem. Or maybe she is so broke she can't pay for any repairs & is taking the ostrich (head in the sand) approach. Whatever it is, doesn't help you much though.:(