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Where do we stand on this?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
I live in a ground floor flat, in a converted house. We bought the flat just over two years ago and the people we bought it from also own the first floor flat. They live elsewhere and rent the flat out.
I was told by a solicitor that we had to share their building insurance policy as it is one building and we share the freehold, so we go halves on their landlord insurance which covers the total rebuilding cost of both flats combined.
Within weeks of moving in we discovered that the first floor flat have severe damp problems, it got so bad that the tenants moved out and some work was done to sort it but six months on the new tenants have just told us they are moving out cos of the damp. We've taken a look and they literally have water seeping down their hallway between the kitchen and bathroom (there is a light switch there which is sopping!) and they have patches of damp in various areas (one explains the odd patch we have on our living room ceiling as their wall directly above is really bad). We are concerned a) that the damp will wreck our flat and b) that our insurance policy could be invalidated. It's also not nice having tenants coming and going all the time.
The owners get cowboy builders in to sort the problem. Apparently (without informing us) they plan to have the really bad wall knocked down and rebuilt! It is apparent to us the roof is the problem and that rain is getting in, but they had the chimney removed thinking it was that but it obviously wasn't.
We don't know what to do?
I was told by a solicitor that we had to share their building insurance policy as it is one building and we share the freehold, so we go halves on their landlord insurance which covers the total rebuilding cost of both flats combined.
Within weeks of moving in we discovered that the first floor flat have severe damp problems, it got so bad that the tenants moved out and some work was done to sort it but six months on the new tenants have just told us they are moving out cos of the damp. We've taken a look and they literally have water seeping down their hallway between the kitchen and bathroom (there is a light switch there which is sopping!) and they have patches of damp in various areas (one explains the odd patch we have on our living room ceiling as their wall directly above is really bad). We are concerned a) that the damp will wreck our flat and b) that our insurance policy could be invalidated. It's also not nice having tenants coming and going all the time.
The owners get cowboy builders in to sort the problem. Apparently (without informing us) they plan to have the really bad wall knocked down and rebuilt! It is apparent to us the roof is the problem and that rain is getting in, but they had the chimney removed thinking it was that but it obviously wasn't.
We don't know what to do?
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Comments
This sounds like it must be pretty stressful! Especially as it's hard to know where to go for advice.
There’s a bit about housing insurance on a site called Plebble which looks like it might be able to help you with your questions– basically it says the golden rule is to tell your insurer about any change in circumstances. There’s also a website called consumer advice services which might be able to help, or direct you where to go for more info. The CAB might be able to help too.
Beyond that, I guess talking to the people who own the flat upstairs and expressing how concerned you are would be a good idea but I’m sure you’ll have tried this!
Emma