Cleaning gutters responsibility

davidmcn

FBaby wrote: »

How do you know it's the gutters though?

It's usually pretty obvious if the gutters are overflowing during rain.

Doozergirl

davidmcn wrote: »

It's usually pretty obvious if the gutters are overflowing during rain.

Isn’t it!

I’m astonished by some people’s ridiculous questioning of the OP. The OP’s question is about the responsibility for the repair, not whether they’re imagining the damp or its cause.

As for the person who questioned the OP by suggesting that damp doesn’t happen on the ground floor when gutters are leaking; engage your brain! Gutters are there to stop the ground at the bottom of the building receiving a constant deluge. Water pours over blocked guttering and follows gravity to the ground. It’s either the utter soaking that the ground receives and/or the up splash as it hits the ground the causes damp on the ground floor. It may well cause pentrating damp in upper floors if it follows the wall on it’s way down, but if you have deep eaves then it’s only going to head straight for the ground.

This isn’t going to be a quick fix, OP. If it has been going on for long enough to cause damp for you then even when it is rectified it will take some time to dry out, maybe months. Depending on the severity, it may need a dehumidifier and possibly some localised remedial plastering. But it is certainly not your responsibilty but that of the company managing the block itself and that needs to go via your landlord.

G_M

An agent who insyructs a tenant to clear gutters in a 4 storey building is irresposnible. Did they put this in wriing? If you climbed up, fell, and injured yourself, they would be liable under H&S laws.

And of course they should also know that in a block of flats it is almost certainly the freeholder's responsibility.

Contact the lanndlord by phone if you can and follow up with a letter.

Who are the other resdents in the building? Are tthey also tenants, or owner-occupiers? If there are O-Os, ask them to contact the freeholder or management company for the building.