Flood/leak in flat - legal action?

energy1x

My property has just been flooded for the 3rd time in as many years by the flat above which is rented out to tenants, they are relatives of their landlord.

Every time the leak has appeared with varying severity and damaged my ceilings, walls and floors. Every time, the management company has offered to repair the damage under the buildings insurance and the landlord of the property above I am told incurs an excess to pay.

However, this time round I have had enough.

Are there any legal avenues for me to pursue? I am in discussions with the landlord above and the management company for several things, namely compensation as every time this happens I have to take time off work to allow for the repairs and now this is the third time round I have had enough and it is not only time off work but stress and anxiety of when, not if, the next leak will occur.

The landlord of the property above is apologetic but my patience has now worn out. I want to pursue legal actions to send a message that I will no longer tolerate this and 3 times is no accident, I believe they are not following the maintenance schedule for their water tank.

Anyone got any experience of this? I am currently checking my lease as the management company are useless so far and are washing their hands of everything. I can't live in fear like this worrying about when the next leak will be. Any help/suggestions/advice very welcome. Thank you

davidmcn

To an extent you take on the risk caused by gravity - you can only pursue upstairs if they've been negligent. So you need to find out what the cause actually is - though several episodes suggests not just an unexpected leak. Difficult to know what you can do if it's not currently leaking though - some sort of court order to properly remedy a defect?

energy1x

I have plenty of evidence including dates, and photos of every occasion it has occurred in the last 3 years.

One of the occasions was pure negligence in that their toilet was leaking, which they knew about and had planned a plumber to attend to over a week later! They failed to even think to tell us until half our ceiling became destroyed.

G_M

As above.


Legal action would require evidence/proof of neligence.

If you feel the number of times this has happened as a result of the same problem (if the causes of each leak were different there'd likely be no negligence) and/or the delays in fixing are sufficient, the a Letter Befoe Action would be stepone.

But what outcome do you want? Claim for repairs? "the management company has offered to repair the damage" = 'offered' or actually paid?

I doubt a court would grant an injunction prohibiting future leaks..........

steampowered

I think you could consider issuing a "small claim" against the landlord through the small claims track.

This is quite easy and cheap to do through the government's moneyclaimonline website.

You would need to serve a letter before action first. The basis of your claim would be negligence in failing to take proper steps to prevent damage. You could claim for the cost of damage to the property (if you have not been reimbursed) and also for the time you've had to take off work (try your annual salary divided by 260 for each day taken off).

Your claim may or may not be successful, but it is very unusual for legal costs to be paid in the small claims track, so it is low risk.

Proceeding in this manner would definitely let the landlord know this is a real problem and will make him pay more attention.

eddddy

steampowered wrote: »

I think you could consider issuing a "small claim" against the landlord through the small claims track.

This is quite easy and cheap to do through the government's moneyclaimonline website.

You would need to serve a letter before action first. The basis of your claim would be negligence in failing to take proper steps to prevent damage.

That assumes that the OP has evidence that the landlord was negligent.

For example, if the toilet was leaking for a week and the tenants didn't tell the landlord, it's more likely that the tenants were negligent rather than the landlord.

And, for example, if another flood was caused because an unattended bath overflowed - again the landlord wasn't negligent.