Selling flat - new roof needed?

officerlog

Good morning all,

Just looking for some friendly advice, and possibly to share my woes!

I own the ground floor flat of a converted terrace of 2 flats in London for which we share the freehold with the person that owns the first floor flat (hope that makes sense!). Our flat is on the market and we have had a couple of viewings. Essentially, we have been told by the person who owns the flat above that the roof needs replacing as it is causing damp issues in her flat. I have already paid a few hundred £££ to repair but now they are saying we need to replace the whole roof.

Given I am looking to sell asap, what am I required to do? In honesty, I don't have the money to pay for my share of a new roof. Do i just need to suck it up and pay or do I have any other options?

Many thanks

Pete9501

Chances are a buyers surveyor is going to notice it, if it's that bad. However, a new roof on the property would be a selling point as it won't need doing for another 50 years and look smart, think street appeal.

How easy do you think it will sell without doing it? and if it doesn't sell you have wasted all that time, then need to get the roof done and re-advertise etc. You would be looking a the summer before selling and the Autumn before completing.

bryanb

Does the roof need replacing or re-tiling/re-felting? Damp can be caused by many things. Have you had a survey by a professional?

officerlog

The lady who owns the flat upstairs has had someone in apparently but has invited me to do the same so i'm going to start searching now!

penguine

When we were selling a flat a few years ago we were asked by the buyers' solicitors to put money into a retention fund towards repairs the freeholder was planning to undertake on the building. So if you want to sell before the work has been paid for, this may be what you are asked to do.

Our sale fell through in the end because the scope of the proposed work was still vague (and alarmingly extensive), but I think the idea was that the funds would have been retained by our solicitors for a fixed period (2-3 years, can't remember) and if the work hadn't been undertaken by then the money would have been returned to us.

Mallotum_X

What type of roof is it? Tiles/Slates?

Is it a simple up and over pitched roof or are there any features/complications with the layout.

A simple up and over on a terraced house is unlikely to be costing significantly over 4-6k (assuming no other problems or that any strengthening needs to be done). So your share is unlikely to be significant compared to the property value.

It may be that you can get away with a repair, if the damp is in a specific area. See what the builders say that you get in.

officerlog

Thanks all.

It's a basic tiled roof, and the quote of £3500 was just for the front part. No complications I don't think. The original repairs were as follows, but did not work:

Remove cement fillet from front left hand wall. Supply and fit 9" lead into the wall, chase into brickwork and repoint to a professional finish. Replace tiles where missing or broken within this area.

The big job that we have been quoted for is as follows:

Erect scaffolding to the front of your property. Supply/Deliver skip for all debris. Removal of the existing front cover of roof (batons & roof tiles). Supply and fit new breathable felt to the roof along with new treated wooden batons. Supply and lay new roof tiles to the front roof area of the property. New roof ridge shall be supplied and fitted. We would suggest that you install an air brick above the door to prevent condensation (a builder will have to complete this air brick work).

Clearly it's not really in my interest to spend best part of £2k when it's on the market. I'd be happy to reduce the price to account for this, but the issue is I don't really have the money to spend on the roof right now.

G_M

OK so there's a quote for a new (half) roof.

But has the roofer concerned said why it is needed? (apart from the obvious need he has for a £3500 contract)?

Until the source of the damp is located it is pointless doing work. Since lead flashing has been replaced, and so have missing tiles, clearly that's not the problem.

Might it even be an internal issue? Leaking pipe in the attic? Condensation? Or could it be a chimney problem? In either case, a new roof is just wasted money.

officerlog

Thanks G_M. He essentially said that because the leading hasn't solved the issues, he wasn't really prepared to do anymore repair work so the next step was to replace the roof, and also fit an air brick.

DRP

officerlog wrote: »

Thanks G_M. He essentially said that because the leading hasn't solved the issues, he wasn't really prepared to do anymore repair work so the next step was to replace the roof, and also fit an air brick.

I'd choose the air brick option every time

It suggests the builder thinks that condensation might be involved... in which case further investigation is definitely warranted before taking the new roof option.

partialycloudy

Also worth checking lease to see how is responsible. When we lived in our first floor flat the lease stated we were responsible for the roof and downstairs were responsible for the foundations.

Also does the roof look bad from the outside? Any surveyor would only be able to access your property so would not see any of the damp issues in the upstairs flat or have access to a loft....