Manager company failure

Jakkwin

Hi, I am a leaseholder of a 2nd floor flat. Whenever I used my sink, bath and toilet the water went straight through the flat below me. Management company said it was my responsibility, a plumber came to assess the property and he put it down to a crack, split or a hole in the soil stack. Management company sent an assessor and the result was my flat is uninhabitable! That was 6 weeks ago!!! I pay £150 a month maintenance fees, for what? I would really appreciate it if someone can advise me on how to take this further.
Jakkwin 

eddddy

You need to clarify a bit...

Are you saying that there is a leak is from the communal soil stack, and the soil stack is the freeholders/management co's responsibility?

What do you mean by this:

Jakkwin said:

Management company sent an assessor and the result was my flat is uninhabitable! 

In what way did the assessor's visit result in your flat being uninhabitable?

Who is the assessor? Who is the assessor employed by, and what was he/she assessing?

BonaDea

Take what further, how?  If the defect is in a 'communal' element of the building, the managing agent will call in the relevant people to investigate and sort out any repair (which it seems that they are doing?), and they may be able to make a claim on the buildings insurance to cover the costs, including any reasonable accommodation costs for you to move elsewhere temporarily while the problem is remedied.
Your service charge covers things like routine maintenance - changing lightbulbs and the like - and the cost of the buildings insurance, as well as the work the managing agent does in dealing with tradesmen etc.  It doesn't pay for every possible thing that might go wrong in the block and at that level probably doesn't include much reserve for unforeseen repairs beyond the relatively trivial.  
Stuff happens.  Tantrums don't help.

eddddy

Re-reading your post, I think you're probably saying...

• There is a leak is from the communal soil stack, and the soil stack is the freeholders/management co's responsibility

• You have been asked not to use your bathroom and kitchen until the soil stack is fixed

• So far, it has been 6 weeks and the soil stack hasn't been fixed

If that's the case...

• Do you agree that the soil stack is leaking?

• Do you know what the management co have been doing about it for the last 6 weeks?

• They have a duty to act 'reasonably'. Typically, I would have thought that it should be reasonable to get a soil stack repaired in a few days.

If you haven't done so already, you should email/write to the management co to explain the situation to them and ask why the soil stack hasn't been fixed yet.

If you want, you can say that you believe that the management co is being negligent in not fixing the soil stack in a reasonable timescale, as this means you cannot live in your flat. And you plan to claim your costs from them that result from their negligence.

(But it sort-of depends on what has happened so far, what you have told the management co, what the management co has told you, etc.)

Jakkwin

eddddy said:

You need to clarify a bit...

Are you saying that there is a leak is from the communal soil stack, and the soil stack is the freeholders/management co's responsibility?

What do you mean by this:

Jakkwin said:

Management company sent an assessor and the result was my flat is uninhabitable! 

In what way did the assessor's visit result in your flat being uninhabitable?

Who is the assessor? Who is the assessor employed by, and what was he/she assessing?

Hi  edddy

Hi edddy, the management company are responsible for the leak, they said they would contact their insurance company to send someone to assess the damage, by the way it was a roofing contractor that came out! I assumed he would bring an endoscopy camera to determine where the leak was. As I have no leeks in my bathroom he said that the leak was coming from the communal soil stack from my stack to the flat below. 2 weeks later another contractor came to inspect the damage with his Ipad he couldn't get any pictures as the soil stack is covered by my wall. I hope this clarifies my explanation as I've never dealt with anything like this before. 

Jakkwin

Sorry I forgot to add that it was the management company who said my flat was uninhabitable as I don't have any toilet, sink and bath/shower facilities because I can't use the sink, bath or flush the toilet because it would flood the flat below me.

Jakkwin

BonaDea said:

Take what further, how?  If the defect is in a 'communal' element of the building, the managing agent will call in the relevant people to investigate and sort out any repair (which it seems that they are doing?), and they may be able to make a claim on the buildings insurance to cover the costs, including any reasonable accommodation costs for you to move elsewhere temporarily while the problem is remedied.
Your service charge covers things like routine maintenance - changing lightbulbs and the like - and the cost of the buildings insurance, as well as the work the managing agent does in dealing with tradesmen etc.  It doesn't pay for every possible thing that might go wrong in the block and at that level probably doesn't include much reserve for unforeseen repairs beyond the relatively trivial.  
Stuff happens.  Tantrums don't help.

You are saying 'tantrums don't help' I am not having a tantrum.The management company are cleary not dealing with this! They were the ones that said my flat was uninhabitable and this has been going on for almost 7 weeks now. They sent a roofing contractor to assess the problem but because the soil stack is behind the wall there was nothing he could see. 2 weeks later an other contractor came to take pictures, again it was impossible as he cannot see through the wall!

Schwarzwald

so what have you done in the last 6 weeks to urge the management company to take care of it?
have you called them this week?
what do they say WHEN it is being fixed?

I think you need to be on them EVERY DAY until it is fixed.

BonaDea

The buildings insurance will probably cover the costs of temporary accommodation for you while your home isn't habitable.  Check your copy of the policy.  I presume as a leaseholder you insisted on having a copy, since you're paying for that insurance?  If not, insist on it now, and as the above OP said, hassle them every day.  Read up on your rights - I believe leaseholders can take action against management companies for non-performance at the Property Tribunal so perhaps it would help to read up on your rights to see whether it's worth threatening action.
https://legalservice.which.co.uk/home-property/leasehold/management-maintenance-issues/issues-with-management-companies/

AlexMac

Perhaps not a helpful comment, but when a tenant (in a flat of mine which I had given to a Housing Association on a long full-repairing sub-lease to use as public social housing) got fed up with the HA repairs team's  inefficiency, they called in the local Council Environmental Health Inspector.  

The EHO sent me and the HA a letter threatening legal action unless we sorted it (ironic, as until I got this letter we had no idea of the problem, as the HA dealt with everything) .

OK, maybe my local Council are more efficient than yours, but the problems in my tenanted flat were much more trivial than yours; a few bits of carpentry, a missing internal door (checked out by a previous sub-tenant) and a tiny leak under the sink.  It put a rocket under the HA, who fixed the leak and hung a new door pronto! (I went in and did the minor carpenty myself)  

So maybe ask the EHO in principle and use the threat to gee up the Agent?

Jakkwin

BonaDea said:

The buildings insurance will probably cover the costs of temporary accommodation for you while your home isn't habitable.  Check your copy of the policy.  I presume as a leaseholder you insisted on having a copy, since you're paying for that insurance?  If not, insist on it now, and as the above OP said, hassle them every day.  Read up on your rights - I believe leaseholders can take action against management companies for non-performance at the Property Tribunal so perhaps it would help to read up on your rights to see whether it's worth threatening action.
https://legalservice.which.co.uk/home-property/leasehold/management-maintenance-issues/issues-with-management-companies/

Thank you, I'll look look into this