Water leaking from garage ceiling (from the flat above probably), management agent useless so far.

user1168934

I am hoping this is the correct section of the forum to ask this.

I live in a block of flats which have garages on the ground floor. For the last several months there has been water leaking from the ceiling of my garage. I have only ever seen it dripping but judging by the amount of water spilled everywhere I think there is a serious leak somewhere. It has damaged some of my stuff too that I had stored in the garage - nothing too expensive but it is !!!!!! me off. I have been calling the management agency for months now and every single time they say that they will ask the owner of that flat to get it fixed but nothing has happened so far.

FYI - the reason why I think it is from the flat above is because it also happened about 2-3 years ago and at the time it was resolved very quickly.

How do I get them to get it sorted quickly?

Can I claim compensation/damages for the stuff that has been damaged by the leak?

davidmcn

Have you tried contacting the owner yourself? Or the occupier, if different? 

xylophone

Have you approached the owner of the flat?

eddddy

user1168934 said:

Can I claim compensation/damages for the stuff that has been damaged by the leak?

The owners of the flat probably wouldn't have known about the leak, until you informed them. So you probably couldn't claim for any damage caused before that point. 

But if they were informed and did nothing, that's probably negligent - so you could possibly claim for the additional damage caused after they were informed.

You have the added problem that you told the managing agent, rather than the property owner. So you can't really be sure what the managing agent said to the owner.

At this stage, probably the best thing to do is to tell the flat owner about the leak, so you can be sure they know about it.

user1168934

I have no contact details for the owner. The flat has tenants living in it. I have told the tenants several times but they said speak to the letting agent (i.e the estate agency - not even the building management agency) because that is who the tenants deal with. I have been calling the buliding management agency who we all pay service charge to - I thought they should get involved since this is to do with the general building. I did ask the management agents for the contact details of the owner but they said they cannot pass on the details.

Should I contact the estate agents?

need_an_answer

put your concerns in writing in a letter addressed to the owner of the property.
You may need to either give this letter to the tenants to pass on to the managing estate agent or better still if they will give you either the agents details or the owners details you can bypass a few layers.

Its important that contact is made with the owner of the property to initially investigate and take it from there

AdrianC

user1168934 said:

Can I claim compensation/damages for the stuff that has been damaged by the leak?

You will definitely want to read the lease. Quite often, they say that garages are to be used for storing motor vehicles and nothing else. A car will not be damaged by a bit of dripping water.

eddddy

user1168934 said:

I have no contact details for the owner. The flat has tenants living in it. I have told the tenants several times but they said speak to the letting agent (i.e the estate agency - not even the building management agency) because that is who the tenants deal with. 

If you've told the tenants, they should have reported the problem to their LL (via the LL's letting agent, if that's their contact point).

If they didn't report it to their LL (or the letting agent) - arguably that might mean the tenants were negligent, making the tenants responsible for further damage.

But it sounds like you might have agreed with them that you would take up the matter on their behalf by talking to the letting agent, so you might have absolved them of responsibility.

Perhaps you need to clearly report the problem to the tenants, and strongly suggest that they need to report to their LL via the LL's letting agent, before further damage occurs.

user1168934

I was under the impression that the building management agency should get it resovled because it is to do with the building. By reading the posts above it seems I was wrong.

I called the lettings agency yesterday and they told me that they have identified the source of the leak and that a quote was provided to the landlord for the fix and he has approved it so it will be fixed "soon". I pushed them for a date but they wouldn't give me a date. I think I will just keep calling them every two days or so - do you think that might work?

I did ask the lettings agent about the damage to my stuff and who will pay for it. They said I will need to speak to my insurance who will assess the damage and will in turn speak with them. The thing is that I haven't got any insurance .... so where do I go from here?

eddddy

user1168934 said:

I did ask the lettings agent about the damage to my stuff and who will pay for it. They said I will need to speak to my insurance who will assess the damage and will in turn speak with them. The thing is that I haven't got any insurance .... so where do I go from here?

You claim from whoever you think was negligent.

• If you think the tenants were negligent - you start by sending them a bill for the damage.
• If you think the flat owner was negligent - you start by sending the owner (or their letting agent) a bill for the damage
• If nobody was negligent (and you have no insurance), there is nobody you can claim from

So for example, if you think the flat owner was negligent, you can send them a bill for the damage (maybe via the letting agent).

If the owner doesn't pay, you'd then have to decide whether you want to make a court claim against them. And you would have to present evidence to the court showing that the flat owner was negligent.


Edit to add...
The letting agent's suggestion that you speak to your insurer was probably just a polite way of saying that they didn't want to discuss the matter with you..

user1168934

eddddy said:

user1168934 said:

I did ask the lettings agent about the damage to my stuff and who will pay for it. They said I will need to speak to my insurance who will assess the damage and will in turn speak with them. The thing is that I haven't got any insurance .... so where do I go from here?

You claim from whoever you think was negligent.

• If you think the tenants were negligent - you start by sending them a bill for the damage.
• If you think the flat owner was negligent - you start by sending the owner (or their letting agent) a bill for the damage
• If nobody was negligent (and you have no insurance), there is nobody you can claim from

So for example, if you think the flat owner was negligent, you can send them a bill for the damage (maybe via the letting agent).

If the owner doesn't pay, you'd then have to decide whether you want to make a court claim against them. And you would have to present evidence to the court showing that the flat owner was negligent.


Edit to add...
The letting agent's suggestion that you speak to your insurer was probably just a polite way of saying that they didn't want to discuss the matter with you..

Thank you, very useful to know that.

I does sound like a lot of hassle especially when I have to present evidence of negligence (which I have none I think, all conversations have been verbal). To be honest, my main concern at this stage is to get them to fix the leak asap. Let's see.