Advice on maintenance issue with co freeholder

Olistanding

Hi, i live in a victorian house which is converted in to two flats which have shared maintenance responsibilities of the common areas. I live in the ground floor flat and have been told by the other freeholder that the roof felt needs replacing and the roof is leaking slightly.
I am keen to get a couple of opinions on how soon the roof needs refelting and the cost of any remedial repairs however the other freeholder is about to put their flat on the market and therefore is only willing to allow access for her friend (who is roofer) to patch it up.
Should i insist on getting independent opinions on this? My fear is that (i) we might get overcharged for the initial work and (ii) the problem might get worse if only patched up and i might be left with a difficult situation if the new buyers dont pick it up in their survey.
I only moved in late last year so dont know the other freeholder bery well which doesnt help matters
Any advice much appreciated
Oli

AskAsk

as a joint freeholder, you have the right to get quotes and there should be something in the freehold that states access to the upper flat must be given for works.

Olistanding

Thanks, there is but i dont really know what i can do if they refuse access without involving solicitors

AskAsk

write a formal letter / email to state that you would like to get quotes from roofers (although at this covid time, they are all busy and you may struggle!)

if she doesn't agree, then you don't have to pay for the repairs as you didn't agree to it.  it is in her interest to get the roof repaired as the leak will go into her flat and not yours.  and particularly if she is selling the flat, she wouldn't want a leaking roof as that will stop the sale.