Water leak through ceiling in new flat.

bex7591

Hi - I need some advice regarding a water leak in a new flat. I bought in May, and moved in last week, and over the weekend the occupier above showered, and water leaked through our bathroom ceiling - when I say leaked, I mean poured like a tap.

We have lodged a complaint with our Property Service Agent, and informed the occupier above of the problem.

My issue, the guy above is a tenant, and the owner of the property (the landlord) is not answering texts, voicemails (phone won't even ring) emails or letters. Our property service agent is saying to leave it another 48 hours (it is already 72 hours into when the problem began), and then they will potentially sort out some repair work for the plumbing.

My question, if the landlord doesn't cooperate, and our property agent only repairs the plumbing problem, how do I go about resolving the huge crack and damp that has appeared in my bathroom ceiling as a result of the flat above's issue?

We have not been allowed to receive the insurance information as of yet, so cannot really take matters into our own hands. We also cannot afford (and shouldn't have to) to complete the repair work ourselves - plus we have no rights to do so as the fault is not within our property.

Any advice here would be much appreciated - Brand new to home owning, and never experienced a problem like this, so need some support!

Thanks!

anselld

You should be able to claim on the buildings insurance of the block.

G_M

The building should be insured by the freeholder, or the Property Agent on their behalf. I assume you pay an annual service fee or similar? Part of that will go towards the insurance.

Make a claim via that.

If the water damaged any personal possessions/contents, they would be insured by your own contents insurance if you have it.

Propertyauthor

This isn't right at all and any management company should be onto it straightaway as water leaks can cause a lot of damage - and the landlord should be on to it too, do they have an agent you can contact?

You should have had information about the buildings insurance in your legal pack, from your solicitor, so give them a call for advice.

What I don't know is whether it was the tenant's fault or the fault of poor workmanship, but if it's a brand new development, it might be worth taking a look at this: http://www.consumercodeforhomebuilders.com/

Hope that's useful.