UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, we own a first floor flat that we've carried out refurbishments in between tenants during which we found a leak from the flat upstairs.

The previous tenant failed to report extensive mould in the bathroom, which we then found was as a result of poor ventilation we well as a slow leak from the flat above.  The flat is within a block circa 1980's and the upstairs bathroom is directly above ours.

Our builders repeatedly tried to knock on the upstairs flat but they refused to open the door (they come to the door and can be seen from the door spy hole).
We contacted the property management company to report the leak and seek advice, they can't help with internal leaks but have tried to contact the owner of the flat.  All we know is the flat is privately rented out not via a high street letting agent.

We left a note for the tenants of the flat above to explain that all we want is contact details of the landlord or to let our builders have a look to see if they can see the source of the leak.  We finally managed to get a mobile number of someone who claims to 'maintain' the property but isn't the landlord.  After about a week of phone calls and texts, we are still not getting anywhere and all this while water is continuing to leak into my flat and I have new tenants due to move in!

What are my options?  I don't have landlord insurance (was on my to do list)!  The landlord of the property above hasn't responded to any phone calls or letters from the management company.

Any advice will be much appreciated

Thanks
Seema 

Blocks of flats should have block buildings insurance as part of the annual management fee.  Does it cover this scenario?  You can pay £3 to check the land registry to see who the owner is registered as, it shows who the mortgage is owed to aswell, obviously only if there is one.  Don't know if they'd do anything or be interested but it's someone else to get involved in the situation.

Thanks very much.  I'll get the details from the land registery now...

We've contacted the management company but they can't help with internal walls but I will try them again too

Thanks