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Issue with Flat Roof and Managing Agent

Hi All,

I'll try to summarise this as best I can as this has been an ongoing problem since Nov 2007. Apologies for the length of the post I just want to get over all of the key facts in this ongoing saga.

- In Nov 2007 I contacting the managing agent of our flat to inform them of a problem with damp penetrating the ceiling through the flat roof above our flat. They sent round a contractor who unblocked the downpipes from the roof which in my opinion would never fix the problem. A half day job at the most, however come December we were invoiced for £375 +VAT. At the time I queried this and was told that the contractor spent 2 days on site fixing the promlem and we were invoiced accordingly. Reluctantly we paid up our proportion of the invoice.

- After a month or so it was obvious this solution hadn't fixed the promblem so my father and I, to avoid more ridiculous charges from contractors, attempted to fix the problem ourself. This provided a fix for the rest of the winter and the following spring and summer.

- In the winter of 2008/2009 the problem resurfaced so we contacted the managing agent again stating we would like to get a quote for full replacement of the flat roof. We provided them with a quote from a trusted roofing contractor we know for £1500 + VAT to completely replace and refit the flat roof. This quote was ignored and they sent round their own contractor who 'fixed' the problem and charged us a further £475 + VAT.

- We're now in the winter of 2010 and the problem has resurfaced again. I've called the agent to express my disatisfaction and asked that they send round the previous contractor to attempt to fix the problem at no extra additional cost. I have been told by them this is not possible as 'as far as he knew, what the contractor was doing would fix the problem'. If another repair is needed further costs will be incurred.

This is now beyond a joke, and I'm not really sure where to go from here. Between the 5 flats in our block we have spent approx £1000 and the problem still exists. Can I refuse to pay the service charge in Dec until the problem is fixed? Can we demand that the previous contractor comes back at no extra cost to fix the work?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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