UK Landlord Forum / Life

Currently in my rented apartment happens to be roof leaking. It is the second time in a month (unfortunately the most rainy season in uk).

I notified the landlord and with the first leakage he said it was probably one time off as it has never happened before. He have dry off the room and painted the ceiling. The first leaked wasn't severe. He said it was probably the gutters and he had them cleaned.

The second time happened in about 2-3 weeks after the first one. It was a bigger leakage, nothing was destroyed as I prepared myself and put towels and bowls in the leaking spots. Again he had the room dry off with the dehumidifier. He notified the building management and two workers came to check it. They basically only had checked the room and said that they need to send someone to check the roof. Another week another worker had come again only checking the room saying that the leaked is on the roof (like, really) and he needs to send workers on the roof.

As of now I am waiting. The initial room is very cold and damp. The bed feels damp and the drying clothes don't dry the whole week. I am mostly concerned about another possible leakage as it might ruin my stuff.

What options I have? My landlord is interested in resolving the situation but it takes way too much time. The first leakage was obviously from the roof and could have been fixed a month ago. My rent payment is due next week. Should I be paying the whole rent if the problem is still not fixed? What options do I have?

You do not have the option if withholding rent.

A Landlord must be allowed a reasonable time to effect repairs. It sounds like your Landlord is on the case, it's just it's not being remedied as speedily as you would like - but that would be true of any timeframe, right? 10 months, 10 days, 10 hours... any time is too much when water is coming into your home. The problem with "reasonable time" is that it's not objective and quantifiable... it's subjective depending on the situation, so a very grey area.

The thing you need to realise, and I am sure you do already, is that just because you're a Tenant renting a property you do not suddenly have a Bubble of Immunity created around you.

Things happen.
Things break.
Rain rains.
Water is the biggest destroyer... it always finds a way.

Be polite but keep on the Landlord's case with this... let them know that you understand how challenging this is, be kind, be supportive, you realise a third party is now involved - it's out of the Landlord's hands, to an extent. You never take the most costly and preventative route the first time something happens... suffering must occur before people get serious. ;-)

This is a very busy time for roofers,and they can't just drop all the other work they have booked in.It might be worth asking though if some temporary measures could be taken,such a spreading plastic sheeting over the damaged area.Do not withhold your rent.

Agreed - imagine if you were the landlord, trying to get the issue sorted but you past couple of efforts haven't worked despite your best intentions, and then the tenant decided not to pay you any rent.

How keen would you be to resolve the issue?