Damp and leaks: whose fault it is (and whose bill)

It is, by some distance, the most repeated conflict in any building. And it almost always starts the same way: somebody has a stain on their ceiling and nobody wants it to be theirs.

The general rule

Who pays depends on where the source is, not on where the damage shows:

• If the source is in a common element (a downpipe, the roof, the facade, a main pipe), the community answers for the repair.
• If the source is in a private element (an installation inside a flat), that owner answers for it.

It sounds simple. The problem is establishing the source, and that is where whole months get stuck.

The steps, in order

1. Document from day one. Dated photos, how the stain develops, and written notice to the chair and to the affected neighbour.
2. Notify the insurers as soon as possible, both the community policy and the affected neighbour policy. Many policies cover tracing the leak, which tends to be the expensive, disruptive part.
3. Locate the source with a professional, not by landing-corridor deduction. A technical report is the only thing that closes the argument.
4. Repair the source first and the damage afterwards. Painting before fixing the leak is throwing money away, and it happens constantly.

The damage and the cause are two separate bills

Fixing the pipe is one thing; repairing the ceiling and paintwork of the flat below is another. They may fall to different parties and different policies. It is worth separating them from the start so you do not end up arguing about a lump sum nobody can break down.

If the neighbour will not cooperate

If the fault is inside a flat and the owner neither allows access nor repairs it, there is the route of formal notice and, if necessary, the courts. The law requires owners to allow access for necessary repairs and to consent to essential works.

And what prevents half of these cases

Roof and downpipe maintenance. Leaks almost never appear out of nowhere: they appear after years of nobody looking up. A periodic roof inspection costs little and prevents the most expensive and longest-running conflict a building can have.