Possible sewage dripping into flat
Discussion
My sister has a one bed flat on a new-ish development in the London Docklands. It’s a one bed flat in a tower with about 10 floors. One would imagine these buildings are the same layout all the way up, but because there are retail units at ground level, the layout of the first floor is different as well - so her flat is a fair bit larger than the ones above.
What this means is that the soil stack that serves the floors above comes down in the middle of her kitchen, so they’ve put in a slightly lowered ceiling and the pipe takes a 90 degree bend in the ceiling and exits through a wall.
All has been fine for the last few years, but recently a wet patch appeared on the ceiling, got bigger and bigger, until the plasterboard started to collapse. The flat above couldn’t find a leak. The developers are still on site building the rest of the estate and have removed some of the ceiling to reveal water dripping down the outside of the soil pipe. They’re not sure if it’s sewage or not.
As a temporary measure they’ve gaffer taped a gutter made out of plastic to the ceiling to direct the liquid into the kitchen sink, and have advised her to “stay away from the kitchen”. It’s been like this for a week or so while they check all of the flats above for evidence of a leak.
Fortunately she’s just finished buying another flat so doesn’t have to live there, but the plan was to sell this one at the same time and remortgage, so the big smelly hole in the ceiling is costing her a lot of money in mortgage interest.
My question is… what rights does she have to force the freeholder to sort the problem as the developers seem to be taking a while? And is there any way she can claim compensation for the additional mortgage interest?
Thanks
What this means is that the soil stack that serves the floors above comes down in the middle of her kitchen, so they’ve put in a slightly lowered ceiling and the pipe takes a 90 degree bend in the ceiling and exits through a wall.
All has been fine for the last few years, but recently a wet patch appeared on the ceiling, got bigger and bigger, until the plasterboard started to collapse. The flat above couldn’t find a leak. The developers are still on site building the rest of the estate and have removed some of the ceiling to reveal water dripping down the outside of the soil pipe. They’re not sure if it’s sewage or not.
As a temporary measure they’ve gaffer taped a gutter made out of plastic to the ceiling to direct the liquid into the kitchen sink, and have advised her to “stay away from the kitchen”. It’s been like this for a week or so while they check all of the flats above for evidence of a leak.
Fortunately she’s just finished buying another flat so doesn’t have to live there, but the plan was to sell this one at the same time and remortgage, so the big smelly hole in the ceiling is costing her a lot of money in mortgage interest.
My question is… what rights does she have to force the freeholder to sort the problem as the developers seem to be taking a while? And is there any way she can claim compensation for the additional mortgage interest?
Thanks
She can possibly swerve council tax as the developers have advised her that the property is uninhabitable seeing as they've advised not to use the kitchen.
The developer will probably require instruction from the freeholder so that is the right place to start. There is the leverage of the service charge and the cost of not being able to live there, or rather, having to live elsewhere but I imagine that can only be used to apply pressure to ensure a prompt resolution.
No harm in skimming through the contract with the freeholder etc.
The developer will probably require instruction from the freeholder so that is the right place to start. There is the leverage of the service charge and the cost of not being able to live there, or rather, having to live elsewhere but I imagine that can only be used to apply pressure to ensure a prompt resolution.
No harm in skimming through the contract with the freeholder etc.
DonkeyApple said:
She can possibly swerve council tax as the developers have advised her that the property is uninhabitable seeing as they've advised not to use the kitchen.
The developer will probably require instruction from the freeholder so that is the right place to start. There is the leverage of the service charge and the cost of not being able to live there, or rather, having to live elsewhere but I imagine that can only be used to apply pressure to ensure a prompt resolution.
No harm in skimming through the contract with the freeholder etc.
Great idea on the council tax.The developer will probably require instruction from the freeholder so that is the right place to start. There is the leverage of the service charge and the cost of not being able to live there, or rather, having to live elsewhere but I imagine that can only be used to apply pressure to ensure a prompt resolution.
No harm in skimming through the contract with the freeholder etc.
Apparently they’ve found a leak in a bathroom several floors up and have now told her that it’s that flat owners responsibility to fix, and since the leak is going straight down this pipe and not affecting that persons flat they are dragging their feet.
borrowdale said:
Great idea on the council tax.
Apparently they’ve found a leak in a bathroom several floors up and have now told her that it’s that flat owners responsibility to fix, and since the leak is going straight down this pipe and not affecting that persons flat they are dragging their feet.
It's times like this that being a good neighbour it was makes you the better person. Apparently they’ve found a leak in a bathroom several floors up and have now told her that it’s that flat owners responsibility to fix, and since the leak is going straight down this pipe and not affecting that persons flat they are dragging their feet.
The polite thing to do is to collect the sewage that belongs to the flat above and return it to them. Keeping something that doesn't belong to you is theft.
borrowdale said:
The developers are still on site building the rest of the estate and have removed some of the ceiling to reveal water dripping down the outside of the soil pipe. They’re not sure if it’s sewage or not.
I would think that if it was sewage, the Mark 1 nose would quickly tell you...!Officially a coliform test would do it.
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