Neighbour's gutter causing damp in my house

Halle71

When we moved into our house there was a small area of damp in a front bedroom. We had been alerted to the need for roof repairs in our survey and we are starting a loft conversion next month so we didn't worry to much as we could address it then.

However, with all the rain in August, the damp has spread down the wall, the plaster looks damaged and the damp is now in the hall below. The last straw came when I found black fluffy mould behind my 15 month old daughter's cot.

We asked the builder who is doing the loft to have a look at it and, as we suspected after looking outside when the damp spread, it is the neighbour's guttering. Our terraced house is staggerd a couple of metre's forward and their guttering butts up against our wall where the initial damp area was. Either it is blocked or the cap at the end in damaged.

The problem we have is that the house next door is divided into flats. They share ownership of the freehold and are both landlords living abroad. We have email addresses but have been told by their tenants that they are pretty unresponsive.

To add to our problems neither have yet signed party wall agreements for our loft so the last we want to do is p*ss them off now but it obviously needs sorting and if, as I suspect, the plaster has been damaged, we need compensation.

I don't really know where to start but I guess I really need to know our legal position first.
If I get a surveyor would they have to pay the costs if it was proved the damp was their fault?

Thanks for reading.

H