UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

My friend is in the uk and she's been renting a flat which has a total of 3 separate renters/owners. She's been there for 1 year. The leak had been going on before they moved in but my friend wasn't informed. My friend is renting it from a private landlord and she has a recurring 1 year tenancy agreement. The ones below her are owners of the flat and they've complained before when the water leaks from their room, down onto their ceiling. The water leaks from the ceiling when it heavily rains. She has told the landlord about this and he has attempted to fix it by asking contractors in. However none have fixed it and the problem still exists. The leak is coming from parts including the light switch in the bathroom and also the cupboard which houses the water tank. They have to put buckets under the individual leaks.

She's not aware of any rights, unsure what to do.

His home country is Greece and when she calls to complain, he often says he is in Greece and that 'he can't help as he is away'.

I wonder if anyone could give her some advice.

Thank you.

The main issue is that the next steps will escalate matters, and, if the landlord gets upset, they might try and evict your friend. So, one thing to do is to check whether the landlord can actually do that - there are a lot of pre-requisites that are necessary before a landlord can use a no-reason eviction. the leak coming into their property. The leak is probably the freeholder's problem (often they're responsible for the roof, not the owner of the top floor flat - and they'll soon confirm if they're not).

The alternative is to report the issue to the local authority environmental health team, who should issue an improvement or safety notice on the landlord or freeholder - that carries penalties for non-compliance.

Time to get tough. She should contact the council, who will deal with him directly. Once this has been done he will not be able to serve notice until it is fixed. I can't imagine why she would want to stay anyway. It could be helpful for her to contact Shelter, they will tell her what her rights are. The people in the flat below should also contact the landlord if they have not done so already, or failing that also report it to the council.