Estate Agents Blaming Me

gary224

I moved into a apartment in East London.

The apartment came with rats, cockroaches, boiler not working and electricity cutting on first day.

Anyway there is a water leak now. they blame me for it cos i have a shower extension.

They say its my fault and i have to pay 100s of pounds for repairs and so on. As im not a plumber its hard for me to verify the fault.

Anyway, they send me invoice of fees and charges to pay, plus fines if i dont pay after 30days. Is there anything i can do to challenge this and what is the legal trouble if i dont pay?

SerialRenter

Have they resolved the other issues?

And can you clarify what you mean by shower extension?
I presume the flat just came with a bath and you plumbed in a shower head, which is now leaking?

googler

What kind of 'leak', and what's a 'shower extension' ...?

gary224

the shower extension is a tube from the tap. end of the tube is a showerhead. the leak is in the ipes that go to neighbour

SerialRenter

Ok, so it's not a permanent fixture? It's one of those rubber tubes that goes over the taps? i.e. probably not capable of doing any damage to the plumbing.

Are they claiming that putting that on the tap somehow shook loose a pipe which is now leaking down to the flat below?

Or else I'm confused, I don't see why you're shower's pipe is going to your neighbours.

societys_child

If it's a leak from the pipes to a neighbour not sure how your adding a shower pipe could cause it, or could the leak actually be water from your shower head, running down the wall, leaking down the side / back of the bath etc?

gary224

hi serialrenter

house conversion. so water leaked to neighbour downstairs. leak in the pipe.

in addition to that, a plumber came last week and fixed it. i was told the shower extension is to blame so i removed it. they called me today said after the plumber fixed it that it is still leaking

althugh i said i removed the shower extension, the estate agent did not believe me so said i will be charged for repairs to pipes and to carpet below

SerialRenter

I see what you mean about them not believing!

Have they been around for another inspection? It sounds a bit ridiculous that they've claimed your responsible for plumbing that you have no access to. Then again, letting agents are not training (in anything) yet are quite happy to give their "expert" opinion on maintenance matters.

You could try writing them a letter explaining how you do not accept liability for the disrepair of the utilities, and suggest that if its still leaking then they seek redress from the plumber who failed to repair it.

If they persist, one of the other posters may be able to help more, as I'm not sure on the best route. Perhaps environmental health? I'm not certain.

chris_m

societys_child wrote: »

If it's a leak from the pipes to a neighbour not sure how your adding a shower pipe could cause it,

In theory it could cause a bit of back pressure, increasing the overall water pressure in the pipe slightly - but if that caused a joint to start leaking, I'd say that joint was pretty well ready to leak of its own accord.

princeofpounds

Gary,

can you please actually confirm that a shower extension is one of these rubber pipes that fit over the tap?

has the letting agent explained at all how they and their plumber think a shower extension might have caused the leak?

where exactly is the leak? - 'the pipe' is not very specific

You need to be precise and structured in your answers to get the best assistance, and it will also be useful for you in trying to resolve the current situation.

It seems very hard to imagine how the letting agent and plumber could be right about this, but it is hard to be sure with such limited detail.

If you and your extension were not the cause, then you do not have to pay for the repair and you have no liability to the downstairs neighbour (unless you act with negligence, making the situation worse than it would otherwise be - if a bath is known to be leaking for example, you can't keep filling it up all the time).

To protect yourself, you must report all faults in writing, and given what you have been told about it not being fixed, re-report it. keep copies. This can all be entirely brief and factual, no need to write emotionally.

If the LA/LL refuse to take action within a reasonable amount of time then you can move onto enforcing your repairing rights, but you may well find the neighbour and/or their insurer will pressurise them for you.

eddddy

Hi gary

Just trying to clarify.., are you saying:

- The flat downstairs reported a leak from your flat.
- Your landlord sent a plumber round to your flat to investigate.
- The plumber saw your "push on shower adaptor" and assumed that some of its spray was missing the bath and finding its way into the flat downstairs (and therefore perhaps the plumber didn't actually fix anything).
- So you removed the "push on shower adaptor", but the flat downstairs says there is still a leak.


If so, it sounds like the plumber may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. So he needs to come back and look for the real leak.

(Even if your shower adaptor was causing the problem, it might be because the seal around the bath has failed, which would be the landlords problem. Unless you were letting water flow onto the floor, in which case you would probably be at fault.)

So explain to the agent that you think the plumber jumped to the wrong conclusion, and therefore didn't fix the real leak.

I'm assuming that your shower adapter looks something like this, is that right?