Advice needed: Leak from flat to one below

kelr101

Hello All,

I wonder if you could offer advice as to how / what I should expect following this recent situation:

I am the leaseholder of a top floor flat, and last night at 10:15pm (Thursday) the gentleman in the flat directly below knocked on the door to advise that our flat was leaking into his kitchen from either the bathroom/kitchen above. I said thanks and said I would look into it and let him know. He advised he would contact his landlord and let them know as he is only renting.

After he left I checked the kitchen, bone dry, and then the bathroom, of which I removed the side panel to check under the bath. This was damp and I assume the cause of the leak below - faulty seal? cracked pipe? I don't know and obviously had no idea that there was an issue. I had a bath that night (about 45 minutes prior so maybe that caused it?)

My partner has received a call from the Management company this morning demanding that we fix it immediately and then something about insurance (my partner wasn't clear on this). He advised that we have a plumber coming at 8am on Saturday, and they said that we would receive a nasty letter in conjunction with this (their words) but she apologised on the phone in advance of the tone of the letter (I'm assuming it's a system generated email due to the nature of the situation?).

Obviously we need to see what the plumber says, and find out if there is any damage in the flat below, but what happens next? The entire building is made of concrete if that bears any relevance.

Do we contact the management company to claim on the building insurance (if its severe)? There is a group policy maintained by the management company with a £250 excess.

Does the gentleman renting below / landlord contact their insurance company and let them contact the management company's insurers?

At the moment i don't know the level of damage (which isn't helpful I know), but i'm all in a fluster about this situation now having not experienced it before. Obviously I've done some googling and some sites say we're not negligent because it's accidental damage and we had no way of knowing, others say we just need to pay the excess and let the insurers decide, other say do nothing.

Thank you for your advice (and sorry for the long post!)

AndyGuil

The reference to insurance is normally the buildings insurance that the building owners have. If the damage to the flat below is excessive then typically it is claimed from that. I would sort out the leak at your end and find out what can be done with the flat below. If it does go down the insurance route then there can be an excess (like you have with car insurance) that someone will have to cover.

kelr101

Thanks Andy. We have the plumber coming at 8am tomorrow to sort out the leak, and if it is serious showers etc. can be accessed from my parents who are local.

I have my fingers crossed it's something small, e.g. broken seal!

If I need to I will pay the £250 excess if it comes down to that as the water has obviously come from our flat; sadly we didn't know so couldn't prevent it.

kelr101

Update:

The leak was fixed on Saturday morning. Turned out the overflow pipe had snapped and dislodged a seal. This has now been replaced, all seals tightened and extra sealant added.

Now, we received the aforementioned letter from the management company today asking us to fix the leak and advise when done so they could facilitate any insurance issues for damage to the flat below. No issues and i'll reply tomorrow.

The bit that has angered me is within their letter. In bold they have stated that if we don't respond by Friday they will FORCIBLY ENTER OUR FLAT and fix it themselves and then charge us for all associated costs.

Surely this is not legal! We are leaseholders and must have some protection over the safe containment of our home!

Really could do with some advice before I contact them tomorrow.

Thanks

BitterAndTwisted

Why are you fretting about a situation which will not arise?

Obviously if your property is causing damage to another and you don't take steps to rectify it why should any of the other leaseholders sit about waiting for it to be fixed while their own property becomes even more damaged?

Some people take no notice of anything that affects other people until something starts to affect them, and that is precisely why the letter has that tone. I expect there is something covering precisely this kind of situation in your long lease, so if you object to the threat being made I suggest you read it before you contact anyone about it.

AndyGuil

I suspect even if you were freehold and water was leaking someone would be breaking the door down if you didn't respond. It implies you were not in to attend to it. As you are you can contact them and say it is fixed.

kelr101

Thanks Andy, I appreciate that from a freeholder perspective. :-)

Hopefully when I have contacted them that should resolve things.

kelr101

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Why are you fretting about a situation which will not arise?

Obviously if your property is causing damage to another and you don't take steps to rectify it why should any of the other leaseholders sit about waiting for it to be fixed while their own property becomes even more damaged?

Some people take no notice of anything that affects other people until something starts to affect them, and that is precisely why the letter has that tone. I expect there is something covering precisely this kind of situation in your long lease, so if you object to the threat being made I suggest you read it before you contact anyone about it.

I think I am fretting as I have never been in this situation before and hoped any advice given would also reassure other users in similar situations :-)

I appreciate your comments and whilst I still believe the tone a little abrupt appreciate where you / they are coming from as I suspect many others would be in denial until it affects them like you say, unlike myself who wants this resolved for all.

Good point on checking the lease also - I will certainly do that before responding.

Thanks again.

dimbo61

If the property was empty and the leak was pouring hundreds of gallons of water onto the flats below would you want something done quickly?
Just contact the management company and explain what has happened and how you have now fixed it ASAP.
A bunch of flowers or box of chocs might also go a long way to keep the peace with your neighbours downstairs.
You could also explain that you had a leak under the bath from the overflow pipe and how poor the bathroom fitting are in the flats!
You got the plumber in straight away and it is now fixed, Insurance will sort out any damage

dacouch

dimbo61 wrote: »

If the property was empty and the leak was pouring hundreds of gallons of water onto the flats below would you want something done quickly?
Just contact the management company and explain what has happened and how you have now fixed it ASAP.
A bunch of flowers or box of chocs might also go a long way to keep the peace with your neighbours downstairs.
You could also explain that you had a leak under the bath from the overflow pipe and how poor the bathroom fitting are in the flats!
You got the plumber in straight away and it is now fixed, Insurance will sort out any damage

It's unlikely to be deemed the OP's fault / the OP be held liable.

dimbo61

I hope I did not say that but the leak has caused problems for the people living down stairs and a bunch of flowers/box of chocs will do no harm.