UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi
I have a ground floor flat which I let out,
The flat above me has had a leak for a long time it's coming from the bathroom, numerous occasions I have spoken to landlord, he keeps saying its the mastic round the bath, he repairs it, within a few months the leak is back damaging my living room walls again, I can never paint it as its never allowed to dry.

This has been going on for 4 years now
How can I make him carry out proper repairs,I am a landlord myself, as you can imagine my tenant is not very
Happy. I live under the Westminster borough.

Some advice would be appreciated how I tackle this situation.

Thanks

Start with photographs and a builders estimate for the damaged plaster and re decoration. put this in a letter and threaten action. You must be prepared to act upon the threat so dont say court in 2 weeks then leave it or you will never be taken seriously again. I would do your own letter recorded delivery and say you will be passing it on to your solicitor in 2 weeks.

I had a similar problem in my own house and thought I was just getting a bit of damage to the plaster in the ceiling when water leaked from the bathroom upstairs.......it had been going on for years.......annoying but just cosmetic I thought.   Here's the shocker........it was actually rotting the ceiling joists under  the bathroom floor!  I kid you not.  There are some good rubber seals which can be put round the bath and then the tiling is brought down over the seal so that there is little chance of water escaping......well, I know that now!  I was lucky to have a friend who cut out the rotted sections and treated the joists so that I didn't have to replace them.  The room could also we 'wet tanked'.    Anyway if the ceiling joists come in on you, you will know about it so get on this landlord's back pretty quick, I would say!