Ceiling Damage from neighbours

adunato

Hello,

We have had an ongoing problem with the agency managing the flat above ours as despite several attempts to fix a leak in the bathroom upstairs the problem is not yet fixed after several months.

The leaking is not continuous however when it does it literally pours liters of water each time, probably caused by the tenants upstairs showering.

The agency has tried at least 3 times to fix the issue but as this keeps coming back they have now given up and stopped even trying.

As we now have a crack in the ceiling a meter long and start fearing structural damage as well as electroshock we have decided to lawyer up.

Before we do so, can please someone suggest the likely outcome of a legal dispute? In particular...
- Will we need to sustain all the legal fees regardless of the outcome of the legal proceeding?
- Is there anything that council or other public entities can do in alternative to a privately hired solicitor?
- How does this type of legal proceeding work? i.e do you actually end up in court? Is the offending party actually forced to fix the issue in a permanent manner?

By the way we just sent them an email with attached pictures and videos giving them 2 weeks to fix the issue before we seek legal assistance. Also we are the owners of the downstairs flat in a two-stories house which leasehold is owned by a third party (which I barely know the existence of)

Thanks in advance

OldFartPlumber

If you own (leasehold) 2 out of 3 of the flats - you could get legal advice on the possibility of buying the freehold of the whole house from the (unknown ) owner . A friend of mine had this same scenario . All I`m saying is Ask I rest my case

evoke

As it's a flat, your management company should be sorting this issue out on behalf of the landlord of the block.

You claim would be the disruption caused to you and the cost of repairs.

If it's been going on for a while, the ceiling may actually collapse. Any timbers that are soaked may rot. It's not something that should be tolerated more than once.

mart.vader

Ask the tenants upstairs urgently for the contact details for their Landlord. (They MUST have this)

Contact the LL urgently and inform him of the problem and that you ( or your insurance co) will be contacting him:

1) to rectify the problem immediately and
2) to recover costs from him.

In the short term, you also need to get the tenants upstairs to put pressure on their LL to sort this out - can you ask the tenants to get a plumber to sort out the leak, which seems to be under their shower?