New home and unexpected roof replacement

sgun

Hev91 said:

Brie said:

You say it's a flat.  Do you own the whole freehold?  If not then the others in the building would need to contribute as ultimately it's their roof too.

It's a Tyneside flat rather than a block of flats. So one-up, one-down and the upper flat is responsible for the roof

Is that what it says in your lease? Because Tyneside flats don't have a set rule for who is responsible for what. Sometimes the ground floor flat is responsible for the roof, sometimes it's shared. If it is your whole responsibility 20k sounds on the higher side even with rafter replacement, but not totally out of ballpark if it's a roofer who is booked up for at least a year or a large firm. 

Chickereeeee

Make sure any roofer you use to examine or do major work is NFRC registered.

ThisIsWeird

Hi Hev.

I'm not a roofer, so cannot comment on the condition of the roof in any detail. From what I can see, tho', it appears as tho' your roof has, for the most part, a 'covering', and that it's in good order. Ie, your roof is covered in what looks like fibre-cement 'slate', which - whilst not the prettiest - should reliably do its job for decades.

You add that, "the roof had been replaced recently before I bought it and no problems related to it were flagged when I got the survey done (the most comprehensive one)." 

1) How do you know the roof had been redone - who told you? If it was part of the sales particulars, or described to you by the vendor as having been recently done, then they'd better back it up with evidence. It would be 'reasonable' to expect a "new roof" to have been done properly, and not have such issues. So, these folk may be on dodgy ground, depending on what they said.

2) What evidence do you have for this work - any receipts, quotes, invoices? I understand that a full roof recovering needs to be notified to Building Control - has yours been? Ask at your LA's BC.

3) I presume it was carried out as part of the loft conversion? If so, who did the work - do you have the name of the builder? When was it supposedly 'redone'? And do you have a Building Control completion certificate for the loft conversion? Check your LA's Planning Portal.

4) And, what - exactly - did your survey say about the roof?

Looking at your photos:

1)

Not sure what the purpose of these new timbers are - I'm guessing they are either part of the loft conversion, or they are there to replace the ends of the original rafters shown. For the latter, I'm further guessing that any replacement was either because the old rafters were rotted by water ingress, or were burned in a fire - they are very black. Any idea?

2)

Do you have access to these timbers? Why are they 'black'? Are they wet to the touch, or are they sooty?! Are they soft or solid if pronged with a screwdriver?

3)

The stuff indicated by the arrow looks to be a roof sealant, such as 'Cromopol'. Whoever brushed that on presumably believed there was water getting in at that point. But why use such a sealant? Why not replace the dodgy slate? Or missing flashing? Why not fix it properly? Weird.

4)

This shows a fair part of your roof. It appears to be largely 'ok', with that slate being in good condition, securely in place, and doing its job. It also shows some weird goings-on around the Velux window - I have no idea what that yellowish flashing is that we can see? And the join between your roof and your neighbour's also looks 'strange' - I have no idea what's going on there either.

So, your roof 'appears' to be 99% securely covered in artificial slate, which is 99% doing its job. My gut says, this does not need a full recover. But it obviously needs work, possibly significant, to seal around wherever water is coming in. Eg, the Velux may need redoing to ensure the correct flashings are in place. For this, the slates surrounding it will need removing, the flashing done, and the slates replaced. Surely just 2 or 3 hours work for a roofer? The join between your roof and your neighb's looks hellish, but I have no idea if this is 'ok' or not. But assume it needs a proper thingy there. A day's work? Ditto for the roof ridge, and chimney flashings and stuff like that. 

Having had 5 roofers out to have a look, this should not still be a mystery. We need to know what, exactly, they all said. The ones who suggested "it ain't a problem", how do they explain the damp? Those who said, "It's the Velux, pal,", what made them conclude this? The one who says it needs a whole new roof, and the existing one will collapse - on what basis does he make this claim?

What to do?  You need a roofer who provides explanations and answers, not just speculation and quotes.