Leaking roof...shared responsibility with council...how to proceed

bairn7

Hi all

Looking for some advice. I've owned my home (a flat) for 2 years and this is the first issue I've encountered. We have heavy rain tonight and the roof is leaking into my loft and through a crack in the ceiling into my living room!

I've been in the loft and I can see where the water is coming in.

Responsibility is shared between me and the local council (who own the flat below). Obviously I want this fixed ASAP so have contacted a roofer for a callback tomorrow to inspect. But should I really be contacting the council as they on the property below? Are they likely to refuse to split the bill if I don't contact them first?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

bairn7

Hi again

As an update, I called out the council for an emergency repair. All they did was put a bit of plastic up in the attic. Apparently they have to report the probable cause and arrange for further work to be undertaken.

In the meantime, I still have water coming through the roof into my attic. This obviously isn't going to be a priority for them.

If I arrange for the work to be done myself and bill them for 50%, am I likely to face issues with them paying? Just worried that this leak may cause more serious issues and if I don't get it fixed then I might not be able to claim damages from them because I'm not taking all steps to get it sorted myself. But don't want to be landed for the full bill when it's shared!!

Any advice?

teneighty

Assuming you live in England then no, you cannot just do the work and recover 50% from the Council.

Usually it is the freeholder who arranges repairs and recovers costs from the leaseholder in accordance with the arrangements in the lease and relevent landlord and tenant legislation. Even if you have a "shared freehold" you still cannot arbitarily do work and charge the other party.

Is the Council the freeholder by any chance? If so what will probably happen is their maintenance department will arrange for their approved roofing contractor to inspect the roof and give quotes for the repair. Then depending on cost and urgency of repair either get the work done and add cost to your service charge or contact you to notify how much you need to pay before they do the work.