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Hi,
We live in a downstairs apartment. There are three floors - ground floor, first floor and second floor.
A month ago there was a water leak from the second-floor apartment that badly affected our downstairs flat. I was not at home when it happened, I came back two days later.
Carpets have been damaged, doors have been damaged, and mould has started to grow on the walls now. I have also noticed cracks appearing on the edges of doors. There was water in one of the ceiling lights as well.
We own our apartment. The landlord of the second-floor apartment does not have any tenant in it at the moment and (seemingly) does not have any insurance.
The landlord’s letting agency is working on his behalf. Initially, they played down the damage and tried to bully us/manipulate us into accepting what they wanted to do, such as not replacing the carpet at all even though it was saturated with water and smelling bad.
We stood firm and made it clear that if not all the damage is repaired, then we will take legal action.
The letting agency then told us that the landlord would be going through the building management’s insurance, but when they learned that they would have to pay £10,000 as excess, they changed their mind and are not going through insurance now.
The letting agency subsequently sent someone purporting to be a third-party assessor to look at the damage. But we did our research and found out that he was just another guy from another letting agency and was shady as well. His letting agency office was a unit in an industrial estate and his company is not even registered on Companies House.
This so-called third-party assessor also played down the extent of damages and told us that we would get everything in writing regarding what work they would do to repair our flat. That was almost three weeks ago. We have not heard anything since then.
So, what we have planned to do is this:
We have got 3 quotes each for replacing carpets, decorating the apartment and replacing the doors.
What we need advice on is this…
We plan to send the quotes first to the building management company so that they can forward them to the letting agency/the landlord.
The first question I have is to whom should we address in the email? The landlord or the letting agent?
We think that the owner lives abroad and the letting agent is hiding that from the government for tax purposes. The letting agency is essentially a one-man team and he is very shady.
The second question I have is how long should we allow for the landlord/letting agent to respond to our email about doing the necessary work. Would 14 days be enough for them to respond to us?
The third question is if they do not respond within the time period, are we okay to carry out the work ourselves and then send them the bill to compensate us? And if they still do not respond or refuse to pay, can we then take them to small claims court?
If someone could advise on this, I would be very thankful. We have never had to deal with such an issue before, so we are at a loss on how to proceed legally.
We live in a downstairs apartment. There are three floors - ground floor, first floor and second floor.
A month ago there was a water leak from the second-floor apartment that badly affected our downstairs flat. I was not at home when it happened, I came back two days later.
Carpets have been damaged, doors have been damaged, and mould has started to grow on the walls now. I have also noticed cracks appearing on the edges of doors. There was water in one of the ceiling lights as well.
We own our apartment. The landlord of the second-floor apartment does not have any tenant in it at the moment and (seemingly) does not have any insurance.
The landlord’s letting agency is working on his behalf. Initially, they played down the damage and tried to bully us/manipulate us into accepting what they wanted to do, such as not replacing the carpet at all even though it was saturated with water and smelling bad.
We stood firm and made it clear that if not all the damage is repaired, then we will take legal action.
The letting agency then told us that the landlord would be going through the building management’s insurance, but when they learned that they would have to pay £10,000 as excess, they changed their mind and are not going through insurance now.
The letting agency subsequently sent someone purporting to be a third-party assessor to look at the damage. But we did our research and found out that he was just another guy from another letting agency and was shady as well. His letting agency office was a unit in an industrial estate and his company is not even registered on Companies House.
This so-called third-party assessor also played down the extent of damages and told us that we would get everything in writing regarding what work they would do to repair our flat. That was almost three weeks ago. We have not heard anything since then.
So, what we have planned to do is this:
We have got 3 quotes each for replacing carpets, decorating the apartment and replacing the doors.
What we need advice on is this…
We plan to send the quotes first to the building management company so that they can forward them to the letting agency/the landlord.
The first question I have is to whom should we address in the email? The landlord or the letting agent?
We think that the owner lives abroad and the letting agent is hiding that from the government for tax purposes. The letting agency is essentially a one-man team and he is very shady.
The second question I have is how long should we allow for the landlord/letting agent to respond to our email about doing the necessary work. Would 14 days be enough for them to respond to us?
The third question is if they do not respond within the time period, are we okay to carry out the work ourselves and then send them the bill to compensate us? And if they still do not respond or refuse to pay, can we then take them to small claims court?
If someone could advise on this, I would be very thankful. We have never had to deal with such an issue before, so we are at a loss on how to proceed legally.
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