Communal roof repairs

rachelbee

Hi,

First of all, apologies in advance for boring you all with this - believe me, I wish I didn't have to!

I own a flat in a previously council owned block. There are 4 of us owners, and 2 council tenants. The protocol set by the council is that if there are communal repairs to be done, we must inform them in the first instance, they give us a quote, and if we agree for the work to go ahead the cost is split by 6 and paid for by the relevant parties (in this case, 2 parts by the council and 4 parts by the individual owners). If, however, even 1 party does not agree to the cost of the quote, we are allowed the opportunity to get our own estimates and submit these. If the council agrees to this quote, the work can go ahead, and the cost is split as above. Seems simple enough, right?

Well, on Sunday night I arrived home from a weekend away to a letter through the door from the neighbour on the top floor, who has just moved in a couple of months ago. She states that on the Saturday she was removing plasterboard from the 'dorma window' inside her flat, and found that the wood had rotted through. My boyfriend and I went out to look at the area she was talking about, and its about 1m x 0.5m2. She claims there was water "pouring in" (although it wasn't raining), and she had to arrange an emergency call out, and that the repair was going to be done on Monday (ie, the next day, and I received this letter at 10.30pm at night) at a cost of £1600 (split between the 6 of us, around £266 each). She states that she will be round for the money on Monday evening.

What is going through my mind is:
- Am I jointly liable for the cost of these repairs? I am 99% sure that if there is work to be done to the roof I AM, however with this being a window of sorts, does this fall into the same classification?
- That aside, I did not agree to this work, and there's no way I would have without checking with at least 2 other companies
- This was clearly not an emergency, as she states in the letter that it "has been patched repeatedly over the years", and "is not affecting the structure of the building", and it was not raining that day (she admitted this herself when I asked her later)
- I am almost certain that the girl doesn't legally have a leg to stand on, as she hasn't stuck to the protocol and has waded in without consulting the others this affects. That said, I don't want to fall out with her, and being an honest person I do not want to leave her overly out of pocket either.

Again, I'm sorry for the boring post but I really don't know where to go next; I'm feeling anxious and am having to avoid her until I know all the facts, for fear of saying something wrong.

I'd appreciate any advice, or sympathy, any of you may have!!!

Rachel

Shenl0101

Hard to say and would depend on the repairing obligations and demises of the properties within the leases. If the windows are demised to this leaseholder and her lease states she must repair her demise then it's with her. I would find out more information and then speak to her - as you state they can't just go about ripping things out causing damage and expecting you to pick up the bill which may even be covered by insurance anyway. The excess on water damage for insurance policies is often as little as £200-£300 so it may have been better to go that route.

rachelbee

Thank you for your help.

I did think of that as an option as well, however I worry she might argue that she shouldn't have to compromise her insurance premium just because the damage happens to have affected her flat first and foremost...