Dry rot - liability

aleleach

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate it so much if you could give us some advice! Not sure if In Myhome is the right section to post my question… I will try to sum up as much as I can:

My husband owns the first floor converted flat in a (roughly) 100 year old building. He is a leaseholder, the housing trust is the freeholder. There are 5 flats in the building.

The owner of the second floor noticed damp on her floor, whereas we had peeling/cracks in our ceiling. We informed the housing trust, had some people around, they then tendered the works and we had the work done last week. One of the contractors said the dry rot was caused by a leak in one of the pipes

We now have a 14,000 pound bill to share among 5 leaseholders in the building.

The housing trust said they are not going to pay for it because the dry rot is recent (they bought the building 13 years ago) and I assume they have a survey report stating there was no dry rot at the time. However, in the day the works started, one of the contractors told one of the leaseholders that he believed the dry rot was old (by looking at the damaged area), and was probably present for the past 15-20 years ago (and is happy to testify).

As the works have already been done, the only evidence we have now are photos of the damaged area before the works were done.

The insurance company is not going to pay for it as it obviously does not cover dry rot.

My question is:

Who is liable to pay?

1. The housing trust, if we could prove the dry rot was there before they bought the building? (don’t think the dry rot is so old though)
2. All the leaseholders:
3. or the owner of the second floor flat where the leak started and damaged our ceiling?

Many thanks for your help!! I'm sorry if this is not clear enough!

Doozergirl

Did they provide everyone with official notice of works, offer a consultation period, three separate quotes and provide you with the opportunity to find your own??

Sounds odd but it's important.

aleleach

Thanks Doozergirl. They did send us a letter - Notice of intent informing us of the works, giving us the right to make observations and to propose contractors. As far as I know, they provided one quote only. Can we use that to build a case agains the housing trust?

Doozergirl

If there are major works carried out that cost more than £250 per flat then they should follow the Section 20 procedure. If they don't do this properly then it isn't legal for them to take any more than £100 from the leaseholder.

IIRC they need to provide at least two estimates for the work - not one, better three.

I suggest a call to the Leasehold Advisory Service as I think not complying with Section 20 may be your only hope.
http://www.lease-advice.org/information/faqs/faq.asp?item=173
020 7374 5380 (government funded so the only cost for the advice is the phonecall itself)

I think that the user Tom Stickland on here did this successfully with his managing agent

If they carry out the Section 20 process correctly then the liabilty for the cost of the work goes with the terms of the lease. It may be equal shares between all flats or some may have larger shares than others or specific flats may have specific responsibilities. Check this. It's most commonly split evenly.

I'm not an expert but I don't think the age of the problem attributes blame for the cost of the work. Leaseholders have the responsibilty of paying for the maintenance of the building, never the freeholder. If there was a pre-existing condition then it should have been found by a proper survey commissioned by the buyer at the time of purchase - 'caveat emptor'

aleleach

thanks Doozergirl, I will find out about the quotes.

There is another question though, and this is in relation to the liability of the owner of the second floor flat.

The dry rot was caused by a leak in a pipe on the second floor flat (according to the lease, she would be liable for fixing pipes that serve her flat individually).

Shouldn't the owner of the flat have spotted the leak?

Why are we all liable to pay for a damage in the main structure in the building that was cause by her neglect ( if you can call it a neglect) of not noticing the leak?

I heard she had a deep on her kitchen floor. The extent of the dry rot was 3 meters and affected 3 joists. How long has this leak/problem been there and she never noticed it?

And still we are liable to pay for it?