Water damage from flat above on 11 occasions housing association tenant. [Merged]

Debi_m_

In 2018 I moved into a new build flat with a housing association. Shortly after I had quite extensive water coming through the ceiling in the bathroom, intermittently. Tenant upstairs gives no indication on what the issue could be. After this happened 5 times I went up to tell them water was coming through again and I could hear children throwing bath water around. Tenant replaces tiled floor, advised water was coming through from bath spillage and it stopped happening.

During the bathroom issues, water starts to leak from hall ceiling/door frames, occasionally from faulty central heating pipes. Tenant refuses to have floor lifted for nearly 3 years from 1st incident. 

Damage to kitchen ceiling twice within 48 hours. Notified her of issue. Did nothing then used washing machine again despite it flooding her kitchen on the last use.

All incidents have happened in just over 4 years. A small water patch has now started appearing in the bathroom. It’s only wet occasionally (HA plumbers advised me all during this time bathroom leaks tend not to be so intermittent). TBH if I could afford to move out I would but as I can’t I need help with how to move this forward. How can a HA allow someone to live in a 1st floor flat that has damaged the property below so many times? 11 occasions of wet ceilings surely they should be moving her? Any advice appreciated.

penners324

Have you complained to the HA 11 Times? Have you requested the HA to repair / repaint your ceiling each time?

gingercordial

Are you sure that this is down to the tenant's behaviour and not the HA failing to fulfil their obligations to fix things? 

I ask because we were once the source of an intermittent leak into the flat below us, and I really did feel for the people below, but our private landlord was completely unwilling to do anything about it other than blaming us for "splashing" which we were not doing (no kids, sensible adults only) and occasionally sending his brother round to layer on more sealant.  It was probably nearly a year by the time he agreed to get a professional to look at it who discovered the bodge job on various bits of the plumbing.  In the meantime we couldn't not use the only bathroom in the flat for that long.  We were really sorry about it but there was nothing we could do as there was nothing we could do differently to help other than pass on messages to the landlord.

Debi_m_

There was never a plumbing issue with the bathroom, I literally caught her kids throwing water round, she lifted her floor tiles replaced it with a new sealed floor. When I 1st notified her of the leaks she couldn’t understand why she had to report the issues and went out before the plumber could investigate. She told me to my face she wasn’t having her laminate floor lifting due to cost. My hall ceiling had to be left water damaged because it wasn’t worth repairing until the source was fixed. As the floor had to be lifted the engineers visited my flat to see where the water was coming from. They told me she had cancelled the last job, they had to drain the system to hot water only due to leaking and her system with 0% pressure in July 2022. It was repaired In October 2022.

I appreciate that this new water mark could be something genuine, if it keeps getting wet I imagine they’ll send a plumber to investigate. My question is if there’s no reason for the wet patch’s as before with my bathroom, what can I do? I’ve had the HAs own plumbers tell me these type of problems are usually tenant related. This water mark is no where near the bath, and not really close to the toilet or sink either.

Debi_m_

penners324 said:

Have you complained to the HA 11 Times? Have you requested the HA to repair / repaint your ceiling each time?

I always report any wetness on the ceiling to the non emergency repairs. They’ve been fixed a few times.

Debi_m_

Update as of this evening, my OH went up as again a wee patch has appeared. She thinks it’s her bath sealant, the issue is it’s no where near there. It would explain why the areas where water leaked through before are cracking. Apparently they will attend on 08/02/23 but I don’t know if this is for an investigation or just to replace her bath sealant, I will make my own enquiries tomorrow. Added a photo to show where the bath is in relation to the wet area.

Debi_m_

I moved into my HA flat in October 2018 after living in a homeless unit when my landlord sold his flat. I was overjoyed as it was lovely, new built & perfect. 

About 5 months after moving in we experienced water pouring through the ceiling in the bathroom. This happened 6 times, I went up to see the neighbour upstairs and I could hear children throwing water around in the bath. I spoke to the HA advised tenant was allowing bathroom to be used as a wet room. As the floor was tiled they couldn’t see that the water was running under the bath then under the tiles. Tenant lifted the tiles and put done vinyl. No further issues until a couple of weeks ago. (Issue resolved May 2020 for bathroom.)

I noticed a wet patch over a few days, not continuously wet. Other areas of the ceiling are wet, but intermittently. I notified HA, they contacted the tenant and an appointment was made for a repair to a shower seal. (Shower is over the bath). I contacted HA & asked for plumber to visit me and for an investigation as this wasn’t mentioned in the job.

Plumber attended yesterday but didn’t visit my flat. Contacted HA via Twitter and they advised a “leak” was detected, but further works are required to rectify the issue. After pushing them they have said works are scheduled for late March and they will inspect my flat once the issue has been rectified. The works are extensive and will take 2 days.

They will give me no information on what the issue is, which makes me uneasy. I appreciate DPA but I at least expect to understand why the ceiling is wet.

I’m concerned the tenant will push the job back as there was also an issue with the central heating system which resulted in the system upstairs emptying in my hall and the tenant delayed this by nearly 3 years as it was inconvenient to have the floor lifted.

I raised an official complaint with the HA in October 2022 as I felt they haven’t managed the tenant and haven’t been in the slightest bit interested in the damage to my flat. 

I suffer with anxiety and I’m looking for any advice on how to manage this issue.

 

comeandgo

I think you should carry out your threat and find somewhere else.  

_Penny_Dreadful

Debi_m_ said:

I moved into my HA flat in October 2018 after living in a homeless unit when my landlord sold his flat. I was overjoyed as it was lovely, new built & perfect. 

About 5 months after moving in we experienced water pouring through the ceiling in the bathroom. This happened 6 times, I went up to see the neighbour upstairs and I could hear children throwing water around in the bath. I spoke to the HA advised tenant was allowing bathroom to be used as a wet room. As the floor was tiled they couldn’t see that the water was running under the bath then under the tiles. Tenant lifted the tiles and put done vinyl. No further issues until a couple of weeks ago. (Issue resolved May 2020 for bathroom.)

I noticed a wet patch over a few days, not continuously wet. Other areas of the ceiling are wet, but intermittently. I notified HA, they contacted the tenant and an appointment was made for a repair to a shower seal. (Shower is over the bath). I contacted HA & asked for plumber to visit me and for an investigation as this wasn’t mentioned in the job.

Plumber attended yesterday but didn’t visit my flat. Contacted HA via Twitter and they advised a “leak” was detected, but further works are required to rectify the issue. After pushing them they have said works are scheduled for late March and they will inspect my flat once the issue has been rectified. The works are extensive and will take 2 days.

They will give me no information on what the issue is, which makes me uneasy. I appreciate DPA but I at least expect to understand why the ceiling is wet.

I’m concerned the tenant will push the job back as there was also an issue with the central heating system which resulted in the system upstairs emptying in my hall and the tenant delayed this by nearly 3 years as it was inconvenient to have the floor lifted.

I raised an official complaint with the HA in October 2022 as I felt they haven’t managed the tenant and haven’t been in the slightest bit interested in the damage to my flat. 

I suffer with anxiety and I’m looking for any advice on how to manage this issue.

 

Déjà vu….

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6421519/water-damage-from-flat-above-on-11-occasions-housing-association-tenant

What response have you received in response to your complaint in October? 

Debi_m_

_Penny_Dreadful said:

Debi_m_ said:

I moved into my HA flat in October 2018 after living in a homeless unit when my landlord sold his flat. I was overjoyed as it was lovely, new built & perfect. 

About 5 months after moving in we experienced water pouring through the ceiling in the bathroom. This happened 6 times, I went up to see the neighbour upstairs and I could hear children throwing water around in the bath. I spoke to the HA advised tenant was allowing bathroom to be used as a wet room. As the floor was tiled they couldn’t see that the water was running under the bath then under the tiles. Tenant lifted the tiles and put done vinyl. No further issues until a couple of weeks ago. (Issue resolved May 2020 for bathroom.)

I noticed a wet patch over a few days, not continuously wet. Other areas of the ceiling are wet, but intermittently. I notified HA, they contacted the tenant and an appointment was made for a repair to a shower seal. (Shower is over the bath). I contacted HA & asked for plumber to visit me and for an investigation as this wasn’t mentioned in the job.

Plumber attended yesterday but didn’t visit my flat. Contacted HA via Twitter and they advised a “leak” was detected, but further works are required to rectify the issue. After pushing them they have said works are scheduled for late March and they will inspect my flat once the issue has been rectified. The works are extensive and will take 2 days.

They will give me no information on what the issue is, which makes me uneasy. I appreciate DPA but I at least expect to understand why the ceiling is wet.

I’m concerned the tenant will push the job back as there was also an issue with the central heating system which resulted in the system upstairs emptying in my hall and the tenant delayed this by nearly 3 years as it was inconvenient to have the floor lifted.

I raised an official complaint with the HA in October 2022 as I felt they haven’t managed the tenant and haven’t been in the slightest bit interested in the damage to my flat. 

I suffer with anxiety and I’m looking for any advice on how to manage this issue.

 

Déjà vu….

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6421519/water-damage-from-flat-above-on-11-occasions-housing-association-tenant

What response have you received in response to your complaint in October? 

I agreed to close the complaint after speaking to the new housing officer. Prior to this they had never discussed the issues. They see it as a maintenance issue, they don’t deal with repairs. The office is closed to tenant enquiries, they only allow you to email your HO. I explained there would be further leaking issues but they won’t discuss things that happened before they took the job. The issue I was complaining about started in 2020 and there’s been 3 HO in that time.

Debi_m_

I googled my housing association and it seems they have a habit of ignoring their tenants affected by water leaks in properties above, lots of newspaper articles saying the same thing. 

I’ll call them tomorrow as it’s unusual for there to be such secrecy about the source of the issue.

Do not rent from Sanctuary housing and don’t consider a leasehold unless you have a good insurance policy with a low excess.